Job 19
Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · 2100 BC – 1700 BC · The patriarchs · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·
29 verses · 423 words · ~2 min read · ~3 min listen
Job: My Redeemer Lives
1Then Job answered:
2“How long will you torment me
and crush me with your words?
3Ten times now you have reproached me;
you shamelessly mistreat me.
4Even if I have truly gone astray,
my error concerns me alone.
5If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me
and use my disgrace against me,
6then understand that it is God who has wronged me
and drawn His net around me.
7Though I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I get no response;
though I call for help, there is no justice.
8He has blocked my way so I cannot pass;
He has veiled my paths with darkness.
9He has stripped me of my honor
and removed the crown from my head.
10He tears me down on every side until I am gone;
He uproots my hope like a tree.
11His anger burns against me,
and He counts me among His enemies.
12His troops advance together;
they construct a ramp against me
and encamp around my tent.
13He has removed my brothers from me;
my acquaintances have abandoned me.
14My kinsmen have failed me,
and my friends have forgotten me.
15My guests and maidservants count me as a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their sight.
16I call for my servant, but he does not answer,
though I implore him with my own mouth.
17My breath is repulsive to my wife,
and I am loathsome to my own family.
18Even little boys scorn me;
when I appear, they deride me.
19All my best friends despise me,
and those I love have turned against me.
20My skin and flesh cling to my bones;
I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21Have pity on me, my friends, have pity,
for the hand of God has struck me.
22Why do you persecute me as God does?
Will you never get enough of my flesh?
23I wish that my words were recorded
and inscribed in a book,
24by an iron stylus on lead,
or chiseled in stone forever.
25But I know that my Redeemer lives,
and in the end He will stand upon the earth.
26Even after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God.
27I will see Him for myself;
my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger.
How my heart yearns within me!
28If you say, ‘Let us persecute him,
since the root of the matter lies with him,’
29then you should fear the sword yourselves,
because wrath brings punishment by the sword,
so that you may know there is a judgment.”
Footnotes (5)
- a v25 Or Vindicator
- b v25 Or on my grave
- c v26 Or without my flesh
- d v27 Hebrew my kidneys yearn
- e v28 Many Hebrew manuscripts, LXX, and Vulgate; most Hebrew manuscripts with me
Study notes on this chapter · 1
Prophecy & fulfillmentDebated
I know that my Redeemer lives
In his suffering, Job says he knows his redeemer lives and that after his skin is destroyed he will see God 'in my flesh' or 'apart from my flesh'. The Hebrew is hard, and readers differ on whether Job speaks of a post-mortem vindication, a resurrection, or a hoped-for vindication in this life.
When: Job (patriarchal setting; date of composition debated).
Original passageJob 19:23–27
Ways people read this (4)
- Christian tradition: a confession of resurrection hope and of Christ as redeemer.
- Job expects God to vindicate him before he dies (the immediate context of his lawsuit with God).
- The Hebrew can be read 'in my flesh' or 'without my flesh', which leads to different conclusions.
- The Septuagint and Latin Vulgate read the verse quite differently from the Hebrew.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.