Job: You Magnify Yourselves Against Me
1 Then Job answered, 2 “How long will you torment me, and crush me with words? 3 You have reproached me ten times. You aren’t ashamed that you attack me. 4 If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself. 5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach, 6 know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net. 7 “Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice. 8 He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths. 9 He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. 10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. He has plucked my hope up like a tree. 11 He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries. 12 His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent. 13 “He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me. 14 My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me. 15 Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I am an alien in their sight. 16 I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I beg him with my mouth. 17 My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother. 18 Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me. 19 All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me. 20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. 21 “Have pity on me. Have pity on me, you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me. 22 Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
Job lists everyone who has left him, ending with the household staff, and then asks his friends for pity rather than for agreement.
How long will you torment me, and crush me with words? Job 19:2. He counts the reproaches — ten times Job 19:3 — which is the number of his dead children, and probably a round figure for enough.
His first argument is about jurisdiction. If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself Job 19:4. Even granting their case, the fault would be his own business and God's. Nobody appointed them prosecutors.
Then he concedes the one thing they want and reverses its meaning. Know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net Job 19:6. Yes, God did this. Bildad had just described the wicked man walking into his own trap; Job says the net was set for him, and by whom.
The military figures pile up: walled in, stripped of glory, the crown taken, hope plucked up like a tree, and finally a siege — his troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent Job 19:8–12. One man's tent, besieged by an army with earthworks. The disproportion is the point.
And then the chapter does something the friends' speeches never do. It stops arguing and starts counting.
Brothers put far away. Acquaintances estranged. Relatives gone. Familiar friends who have forgotten me. The household staff treating him as a stranger, and I am an alien in their sight Job 19:13–15. He calls a servant and gets no answer, and has to beg Job 19:16.
The list works downward through the social order, and that is what makes it unbearable. It is not the loss of status. It is that a man who once had a household now cannot get a reply from someone he employs.
His wife appears in one clause — my breath is offensive to my wife Job 19:17 — which is the only thing said about her since her one line, and it is about the smell of the disease. Then even the small children of the street speak against him when he stands up Job 19:18.
The physical summary is the phrase everyone knows without knowing where it comes from: I have escaped by the skin of my teeth Job 19:20.
And the plea that follows is the smallest request in the book, repeated because it is not being met: have pity on me. Have pity on me, you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me Job 19:21.
He is not asking them to agree with him. He is asking them to be sorry. And the question he ends on names exactly what they have been doing: why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? Job 19:22. They have taken God's side so thoroughly that they have taken over his work.
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