Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Job 19:23

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Job 19:23. O that my words were now written! — Job introduces the important subject which follows in a manner unusually solemn; and he certainly considers the words which he was about to utter of great moment, and therefore wishes them to be recorded in every possible way. All the modes of writing then in use he appears to refer to. As to printing, that should be out of the question, as no such art was then discovered, nor for nearly two thousand years after. Our translators have made a strange mistake by rendering the verb יחקו yuchaku, printed, when they should have used described, traced out. O that my words were fairly traced out in a book! It is necessary to make this remark, because superficial readers have imagined that the art of printing existed in Job's time, and that it was not a discovery of the fifteenth century of the Christian era: whereas there is no proof that it ever existed in the world before A.D. 1440, or thereabouts, for the first printed book with a date is a psalter printed by John Fust, in 1457, and the first Bible with a date is that by the same artist in 1460.

Three kinds of writing Job alludes to, as being practised in his time:

1. Writing in a book, formed either of the leaves of the papyrus, already described, (see on Job 8:11,) or on a sort of linen cloth. A roll of this kind, with unknown characters, I have seen taken out of the envelopments of an Egyptian mummy. Denon, in his travels in Egypt, gives an account of a book of this kind, with an engraved facsimile, taken also out of an Egyptian mummy.

2. Cutting with an iron stile on plates of lead.

3. Engraving on large stones or rocks, many of which are still found in different parts of Arabia.

To the present day the leaves of the palm tree are used in the East instead of paper, and a stile of brass, silver, iron, c., with a steel point, serves for a pen. By this instrument the letters are cut or engraved on the substance of the leaf, and afterwards some black colouring matter is rubbed in, in order to make the letters apparent. This was probably the oldest mode of writing, and it continues among the Cingalese to the present day. It is worthy of remark that PLINY (Hist. Nat., lib. xiii., c. 11) mentions most of these methods of writing, and states that the leaves of the palm tree were used before other substances were invented. After showing that paper was not used before the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, he proceeds: In palmarum foliis primo scriptitatum deinde quarundam arborum libris: postea publica monumenta plumbeis voluminibus, mox et privata linteis confici caepta, aut ceris. "At first men wrote on palm tree leaves, and afterwards on the bark or rind of other trees. In process of time, public monuments were written on rolls of lead, and those of a private nature on linen books, or tables covered with wax."

Pausanias, lib. xii., c. 31, giving an account of the Boeotians, who dwelt near fount Helicon, states the following fact: -

Και μοι μολιβδον εδεικνυσαν, ενθα ἡ πηγη, τα πολλα ὑπο του χρονου λελυμασμενον, εγγεγραπται γαρ αυτῳ τα εργα;

"They showed me a leaden table near to the fountain, all which his works (Hesiod's) were written; but a great part had perished by the injuries of time."

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Job’s reply to Bildad (19:1-29)

Again Job rebukes his friends and rejects their assertion that his sufferings prove he must be a great sinner. Even if he has sinned, he argues, that is no concern of theirs (19:1-4). As Job sees things, he has not been wicked, but God has made it look as if he has by placing him in this humiliating situation (5-6). God has used his power against Job and Job can do nothing about it. He feels helpless (7-12). Relatives, friends and servants have all turned against him (13-16). His wife has forsaken him, children laugh at him, and people in general find him repulsive (17-20). Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar are the only ones who have chosen to stay with him. Can they not therefore take pity on him and give him some comfort (21-22)?
Job wishes that his words could be recorded permanently, so that some day someone would declare him right (23-24). At this thought Job recalls his previous wish for new life after death (see notes on 14:13-17). This time, however, his words are more than just a wish. He is now confident that there must be a new and victorious life after death, for if God is to make a declaration that Job is righteous, Job must be there to hear it. So though his body may die, he will somehow live again. In his own body, with his own eyes, he will see God (25-27).
When that day comes, justice will be done to those who at present insist that Job’s suffering is the result of his secret sins. His accusers will be proved wrong and his persecutors will be punished (28-29).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

JOB'S WORDS (ABOUT TO BE UTTERED)
ARE OF ETERNAL SIGNIFICANCE;
AND HE PRAYED THAT THEY
MIGHT BE REMEMBERED FOREVER

"Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a boom That with an iron pen and lead They were graven in the rock forever!"

The scholars like to speculate about the kind of book Job was talking about here, but that has nothing to do with the point. These verses prove that Job was about to mention something of eternal import, words that needed to be remembered forever. This prelude to what he said makes any speculation that Job's declaration pertained to anything whatever in his present lifetime impossible to allow. No individual's lifetime could possibly provide the perimeter of the world-shaking Truth to be revealed. The theater in which his words would shine forever encompassed Time and Eternity, and not merely the fleeting days of any mortal's lifetime on earth.

The Good News Bible version erroneously translated Job 19:26, making it read, "While still in this body, I shall see God." This is an example of that which was mentioned by Rowley that, "Some editors emend out of the passage any concept of the resurrection,"New Century Bible Commentary, p. 137. that being exactly what the editors of the Good News Bible did here. If that was all that Job meant, there would have been no need whatever for this marvelous prelude.

God honored Job's wishes here for the eternal preservation of his priceless words. "That which Job so passionately wished for in this passage, God was pleased to grant."Matthew Henry's Commentary, Vol. 3, p. 109. The sacred words of the Holy Bible record Job's holy words; and that is a far more permanent memorial that any leaded inscription upon the face of some Behistun mountain could possibly have been.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Oh that my words were now written! - Margin, as in Hebrew, “Who will give;” a common mode of expressing desire among the Hebrews. This expression of desire introduces one of the most important passages in the book of Job. It is the language of a man who felt that injustice was done by his friends, and that he was not likely to have justice done him by that generation. He was charged with hypocrisy; his motives were called in question; his solemn appeals, and his arguments to assert his innocence, were disregarded; and in this state of mind he expresses the earnest wish that his expressions might be permanently recorded, and go down to far distant times. He desired that what he had said might be preserved, that future ages might be able to judge between him and his accusers, and to know the justice of his cause. The desire thus expressed has been granted, and a more permanent record bas been made than if, in accordance with his request, his sentiments had been engraved on lead or stone.

Oh that they were printed! - It is clear that this expression may convey wholly an erroneous idea. The art of “printing” was then unknown; and the passage has no allusion to that art. The original word (חקק châqaq) means properly, to cut in, to hew; then to cut - e. g. a sepulchre in a rock, Isaiah 22:16; then to cut, or engrave letters on a tablet of lead or stone, Isaiah 30:8; Ezekiel 4:1; and generally it implies the notion of engraving, or inscribing on a plate with an engraving tool. Anciently books were made of materials which allowed of this mode of making a record. Stone would probably be the first material; and then plates of metal, leaves, bark, skins, etc. The notion of engraving, however, is the proper idea here.

In a book - - בספר b^esêpher. The word ספר drow sêpher is derived from ספר sâphar. In Arabic the kindred word shafar means to scratch, to scrape; and hence, to engrave, write, record - and the idea was originally that ofinsculping or engraving on a stone. Hence, the word comes to denote a book, of any materials, or made in any form. Pliny, speaking of the materials of ancient books, says, Olim in palmarum foliis scriptitatum, et libris quarundam arborum; postea publira monumenta plumbeis voluminibus, mox et privata lintels confici coepta aut ceris. Lib. xiii. 11. “At first men wrote on the leaves of the palm, or the bark of certain trees; but afterward public documents were preserved in leaden volumes (or rolls), and those of a private nature on wax or linen.” “Montfaucon purchased at Rome, in 1699, an ancient book entirely composed of lead. It was about four inches long, and three inches wide: and not only were the two pieces that formed the cover, and the leaves, six in number, of lead, but also the stick inserted through the rings to hold the leaves together, as well as the hinges and nails. It contained Egyptian Gnostic figures and unintelligible writing. Brass, as more durable, was used for the inscriptions designed to last the longest, such as treaties, laws, and alliances. These public documents were, however, usually written on large tablets. The style for writing on brass and other hard substances was sometimes tipped with diamond.”

The meaning of the word here is evidently a record made on stone or lead - for so the following verses indicate. The art of writing or engraving was known in the time of Job; but I do not know that there is evidence that the art of writing on leaves, bark, or vellum was yet understood. As books in the form in which they are now were then unknown; as there is no evidence that at that time anything like volumes or rolls were possessed; as the records were probably preserved on tablets of stone or lead; and as the entire description here pertains to something that was engraved; and as this sense is conveyed by the Arabic verb from which the word ספר sêpher, book, is derived, the word tablet, or some kindred word, will better express the sense of the original than book - and I have, therefore, used it in the translation.

Assyrian records are found generally in stone or clay; and the latter being more easily and speedily engraven with a triangular instrument, was more frequently employed.

(1) An Assyrian terra-cotta cylinder from Khorsabad contains the annals of the reign of Sargon. It is dated about 721 B.C.

(2) A hexagonal terra cotta cylinder from Koyunjik contains the annals of the first eight years of the reign of Sennacherib (702 to 694 B.C.), with an account of the expedition against Hezekiah.

(3) The inscription shows Assyrian scribes making notes of prisoners, heads of slain, spoils, etc. It comes from Koyunjik.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 19

Then Job answered and said, How long will you vex my soul, and break me in pieces with your words? These ten times you have reproached me: and you're not ashamed that you made yourself like a stranger to me. And be it indeed that I have erred, my error remaineth with myself. If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach: Know now that God hath overthrown me, encompassed me in his net ( Job 19:1-6 ).

Now this is the thing that upsets them, that he is blaming God for the calamities. This is the thing that really ires his friends, but Job repeats it. "Look, I don't care what you say, fellas. God has overthrown me." Now God allowed Job to be overthrown. So Job doesn't understand it fully himself.

Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there's no judgment. He's fenced up my way, I cannot pass, he has set darkness in my paths. He's stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. He has destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and my hope hath he removed like a tree. He hath also kindled his wrath against me, he counts me unto him as one of his enemies. His troops have come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tent. He has put my brothers far from me, mine acquaintance are estranged from me. My kinsfolk [my family] have failed, and my familiar [close] friends have forgotten me. They that dwell in my house, and my maids, count me as a stranger: I am an alien in their sight. I called to my servant, and he doesn't even answer me; I beg with him with my mouth. My breath is strange to my wife, though I begged her for the children's sake of my own body. Yea, the young children despise me; I arose, and they spake against me. All my inward friends abhor me: and they whom I have loved have turned against me. My bone cleaves to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped [I'm only living] by the skin of my teeth. Have pity on me, have pity on me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me. Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? ( Job 19:7-22 )

So Job is, oh man, you talk about misery and you talk about everything going against you. Everybody turning against you. "My servants, they won't even listen to me. I call them and they won't even answer. I beg them to come and help me and they're my servants, but they won't even listen. My wife, the one who bore my children, she's turned against me. I beg her, and she doesn't even listen. My friends, my close friends, they've all turned. Here I am, all alone. Nobody understands me." Have you ever thought that? Nobody understands. Boy, Job was really in the pit.

Now, you can't get any lower than this. There's no way. I don't care how bad you've had it; you can't get any lower than Job was. I mean, he is at the bottom. But so many times it is when we get to the bottom that we look up. And Job can't go any lower than the cry that he's just made. I mean, this is it. This is bottoming out. And at this point of total despair, hopelessness, "God has turned against me, my family has turned against me, my friends have turned against me, my nephews have turned against me, the little kids hate me. Nobody loves me. I haven't a friend in the world left," yet Job said,

Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! ( Job 19:23 )

Well, Job, they are.

That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! ( Job 19:24 )

"Oh, that I could carve these words in the rock." What words?

I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin the worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me ( Job 19:25-27 ).

Out of the midst of the darkest despair, this cry of glorious victory. "I know." You see, I don't know much at this point, I don't understand anything at this point, but I do know this: the foundation upon which I stand. My Redeemer liveth.

Now remember that Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible. Job perhaps lived about the time of Abraham. At this point, they had not had the prophets to testify to the people of the coming Messiah, the Deliverer. Job's revelation was very limited, but yet he knew that his Redeemer lived. He believed in the Messiah. And in the latter days, He's going to stand upon the earth. And though the worms and all eat this body, yet I'm going to see Him. I'm going to see Him for myself. What a glorious hope. And this is the sustaining hope. Though I may not understand a lot of things, I know this: my Redeemer lives. Someday He's going to come again and establish His kingdom upon earth and I'm going to see Him. Peter said, "Whom having not seen, yet you love and even though you do not see Him now, still we rejoice with a joy unspeakable and full of glory" ( 1 Peter 1:8 ). I'm glad for the knowledge and the assurance that my Redeemer lives.

Now, Job has the capacity of coming out with these bright things and then jumping right back down in the pit.

But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me? Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment ( Job 19:28-29 ). "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

4. Job’s second reply to Bildad ch. 19

This speech is one of the more important ones in the book, because in it, Job reached a new low and a new high in his personal experience. He revealed here the extent of his rejection by his friends, relatives, and servants, but he also came to a new confidence in God. Bildad had spoken of the terrors of death, and now Job described the trials of life, his own life. He did so by using seven figures to describe himself: an animal trapped (Job 19:6), a criminal in court (Job 19:7), a traveler fenced in (Job 19:8), a king dethroned (Job 19:9), a structure destroyed (Job 19:10), a tree uprooted (Job 19:10), and a city besieged (Job 19:11-12). [Note: Wiersbe, pp. 39-40.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Job’s confidence in God 19:23-29

"But it is just here, when everything is blackest, that his faith . . . like the rainbow in the cloud . . . shines with a marvelous splendor." [Note: W. B. MacLeod, The Afflictions of the Righteous, p. 172.]

This short section contains probably the best-known verses in the book (Job 19:23-27). They are an affirmation of Job’s great faith in God. One writer argued that Job was not expressing hope but despair because he believed God could vindicate him but would not do so before he died. [Note: Theophile J. Meek, "Job xix 25-27," Vetus Testamentum 6 (1956):100-103. James K. Zink, "Impatient Job," Journal of Biblical Literature 84:2 (June 1965):147-52.]

"One might even call Job the first Protestant, in the fullest sense of the word. He takes his stand upon individual faith rather than yielding to pious dogma." [Note: Philip Yancey, "When the Facts Don’t Add Up," Christianity Today, June 13, 1986, p. 21.]

God granted Job’s request in Job 19:23-24 better than he could have expected. Probably what he had in mind in Job 19:24 was that someone would chisel letters out of a massive rock and pour in lead making the letters even more prominent and permanent.

Job proceeded to reach out to God in faith (Job 19:25). Who is the redeemer to whom Job referred? Probably he is the same person he requested elsewhere, when he called for a legal arbiter between himself and God (Job 9:33), who would be a witness and an advocate for him (Job 16:19). In this case, too, Job seems to have thought of a person other than God. [Note: Parsons, pp. 148-49, 156-57.] However, he may have been God Himself, in view of Job’s confident statement that he believed he would see God (Job 19:26). [Note: Hartley, p. 294.]

"The Old Testament records several notable instances where people such as Abraham, Moses and Isaiah ’saw’ God, and Job doubtless has something similar in mind." [Note: Andersen, p. 193.]

The advocate of Job 16:19 was in heaven. This opens the possibility for a divine witness, as mentioned earlier. Nevertheless Job called him a man, and this points to a person other than God. The word "redeemer" in Hebrew (goel) means one who provided legal protection for a close relative who could not defend himself or herself (cf. Leviticus 25:23-25; Leviticus 25:47-55; Numbers 35:19-27; Ruth 4:4-15; 2 Samuel 14:11; 1 Kings 16:11; Psalms 119:154; Proverbs 23:11; Jeremiah 50:34).

"In pagan theology a personal patron-deity acted as a champion for an individual human, pleading his cause in the council of the gods. In the Book of Job the angels perform this role. In Job 33:23 Elihu clearly presented his theology of angels that took the place of the pagan servant-deities. He employed the very root (mls) used in Job 16:20 to describe Job’s ’Intercessor.’ In each of these Advocate passages, the third party is greater than man; and in chapter 16 he lives in heaven. Yet he is fully capable of taking his stand to testify on earth (Job 19:25)." [Note: Smick, "Job," p. 942.]

Job was confident that his redeemer, whomever he may have had in mind, would take up his cause and vindicate him, either before [Note: Hartley, p. 296.] or after Job died. [Note: Rowley, p. 138.] He added that this person would take His stand on earth "at the last" (i.e., finally, not at the end of time). In other words, this person would have the last word.

The Hebrew word translated "earth" (Job 19:25) literally means "dust." Does this word refer to the grave (cf. Job 7:21; Job 17:16; Job 20:11; Job 21:26; Job 34:15) or the earth (cf. Job 5:6; Job 8:19; Job 14:8; Job 41:33 NASB margin)? Earth seems to be the better possibility because it involves a simpler explanation. If this is the case, Job believed his redeemer would vindicate him in the presence of people who were living on the earth eventually.

Job probably described his skin as flayed (Job 19:26) to picture his painful death, not that he expected God to flay him while he was alive. He believed he would see God after his death. He evidently saw no hope of vindication before he died.

"Though there is no full grasping of a belief in a worthwhile Afterlife with God, this passage is a notable landmark in the progress toward such a belief." [Note: Ibid., p. 140.]

The "another" person of Job 19:27 is another beside God, not another beside Job. Job would see God Himself. Evidently Job expected to see God after death, but there is no indication in the text that Job knew God would resurrect his body after he died. He believed in life after death, but he evidently did not know about the certain resurrection of the body. This revelation came from God after Job’s lifetime (cf. Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:2; 1 Corinthians 15).

"While he was anticipating the doctrine of resurrection, he was not spelling out the teaching of a final resurrection for all the righteous." [Note: Smick, "Job," p. 943.]

Though Job may not have known who his Redeemer was, we now know that He was Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5). In saying what he did, Job was uttering Messianic prophecy, though he probably did not realize he was doing so.

Having made this breakthrough of faith in God, Job seems less frantic hereafter in the book. He now saw his sufferings in the light of eternity, not just in his lifetime. When we can help people gain this perspective on their sufferings, we will find that they, too, find some relief.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

O that my words were now written!.... Not his things q, as some render it, his affairs, the transactions of his life; that so it might appear with what uprightness and integrity he had lived, and was not the bad man he was thought to be; nor the words he had delivered already, the apologies and defences he had made for himself, the arguments he had used in his own vindication, and the doctrines respecting God and his providence which he had laid down and asserted; and was so far from being ashamed of them, or retracting them, that he wishes they had been taken down in writing, that posterity might read and judge of the controversy between him and his friends; but rather the words he was about to deliver in Job 19:25, expressing his faith in Christ, in the resurrection of the dead, and in a future state of happiness and glory; these he wishes were "written", that they might remain as a standing testimony of his faith and hope; for what is written abides, when that which is only spoken is soon forgot, and not easily recalled:

O that they were printed in a book! not written on loose sheets, which might be lost, but in a book bound up, or rolled up in a volume, as was the custom of ancient times; though this cannot be understood of printing properly taken, which has not been in use but little more than five hundred years, but of engrossing, as of statutes and decrees in public records; and the word for "statutes comes" from this that is here used.

q מלי "res meae", Polychronius apud Pinedam in loc.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!   24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!   25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:   26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:   27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.   28 But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?   29 Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.

      In all the conferences between Job and his friends we do not find any more weighty and considerable lines than these; would one have expected it? Here is much both of Christ and heaven in these verses: and he that said such things as these declared plainly that he sought the better country, that is, the heavenly; as the patriarchs of that age did, Hebrews 11:14. We have here Job's creed, or confession of faith. His belief in God the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, and the principles of natural religion, he had often professed: but here we find him no stranger to revealed religion; though the revelation of the promised Seed, and the promised inheritance, was then discerned only like the dawning of the day, yet Job was taught of God to believe in a living Redeemer, and to look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come, for of these, doubtless, he must be understood to speak. These were the things he comforted himself with the expectation of, and not a deliverance from his trouble or a revival of his happiness in this world, as some would understand him; for besides that the expressions he here uses, of the Redeemer's standing at the latter day upon the earth, of his seeing God, and seeing him for himself, are wretchedly forced if they be understood of any temporal deliverance, it is very plain that he had no expectation at all of his return to a prosperous condition in this world. He had just now said that his way was fenced up, (Job 19:8; Job 19:8) and his hope removed like a tree,Job 19:10; Job 19:10. Nay, and after this he expressed his despair of any comfort in this life, Job 23:8; Job 23:9; Job 30:23. So that we must necessarily understand him of the redemption of his soul from the power of the grave, and his reception to glory, which is spoken of, Psalms 49:15. We have reason to think that Job was just now under an extraordinary impulse of the blessed Spirit, which raised him above himself, gave him light, and gave him utterance, even to his own surprise. And some observe that, after this, we do not find Job's discourses such passionate, peevish, unbecoming, complaints of God and his providence as we have before met with: this hope quieted his spirit, stilled the storm and, having here cast anchor within the veil, his mind was kept steady from this time forward. Let us observe,

      I. To what intent Job makes this confession of his faith here. Never did any thing come in more pertinently, or to better purpose. 1. Job was now accused, and this was his appeal. His friends reproached him as a hypocrite and contemned him as a wicked man; but he appeals to his creed, to his faith, to his hope, and to his own conscience, which not only acquitted him from reigning sin, but comforted him with the expectation of a blessed resurrection. These are not the words of him that has a devil. He appeals to the coming of the Redeemer, from this wrangle at the bar to the judgment of the bench, even to him to whom all judgment is committed, who he knew would right him. The consideration of God's day coming will make it a very small thing with us to be judged of man's judgment,1 Corinthians 4:3; 1 Corinthians 4:4. How easily may we bear the unjust calumnies and reproaches of men while we expect the glorious appearance of our Redeemer, and his redeemed, at the last day, and that there will then be a resurrection of names, as well as bodies! 2. Job was now afflicted, and this was his cordial; when he was pressed above measure this kept him from fainting--he believed that he should see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living; not in this world, for that is the land of the dying.

      II. With what a solemn preface he introduces it, Job 19:23; Job 19:24. He breaks off his complaints abruptly, to triumph his comforts, which he does, not only for his own satisfaction, but for the edification of others. Those now about him, he feared, would little regard what he said, and so it proved, He therefore wished it might be recorded for the generations to come. O that my words were now written, the words I am now about to say! As if he had said, "I own I have spoken many unadvised words, which I could wish might be forgotten, for they will neither do me credit nor do others good. But I am now going to speak deliberately, and that which I desire may be published to all the world and preserved for the generations to come, in perpetuam rei memoriam--for an abiding memorial, and therefore that it may be written plainly and printed, or drawn out in large and legible characters, so that he that runs may read it; and that it may not be left in loose papers, but put into a book; or, if that should perish, that it may be engraven like an inscription upon a monument, with an iron pen in lead, or in the stone; let the engraver use all his art to make it a durable appeal to posterity." That which Job here somewhat passionately wished for God graciously granted him. His words are written; they are printed in God's book; so that, wherever that book is read, there shall this be told for a memorial concerning Job. He believed, therefore he spoke.

      III. What his confession itself is; what are the words which he would have to be written; we here have them written, Job 19:25-27; Job 19:25-27. Let us observe them.

      1. He believes the glory of the Redeemer and his own interest in him (Job 19:25; Job 19:25): I know that my Redeemer liveth, that he is in being and is my life, and that he shall stand at last, or stand the last, or at the latter day, upon (or above) the earth. He shall be raised up, or, He shall be, at the latter day, (that is, in the fulness of time: the gospel day is called the last time because that is the last dispensation) upon the earth: so it points at his incarnation; or, He shall be lifted up from the earth (so it points at his crucifixion), or raised up out of the earth (so it is applicable to his resurrection), or, as we commonly understand it, At the end of time he shall appear over the earth, for he shall come in the clouds, and every eye shall see him, so close shall he come to this earth. He shall stand upon the dust (so the word is), upon all his enemies, which shall be put a dust under his feet; and he shall tread upon them and triumph over them. Observe here, (1.) That there is a Redeemer provided for fallen man, and Jesus Christ is that Redeemer. The word is Goël which is used for the next of kin, to whom, by the law of Moses, the right of redeeming a mortgaged estate did belong, Leviticus 25:25. Our heavenly inheritance was mortgaged by sin; we are ourselves utterly unable to redeem it; Christ is near of kin to us, the next kinsman that is able to redeem; he has paid our debt, satisfied God's justice for sin, and so has taken off the mortgage and made a new settlement of the inheritance. Our persons also want a Redeemer; we are sold for sin, and sold under sin; our Lord Jesus has wrought out a redemption for us, and proclaims redemption for us, and proclaims redemption to us, and so he is truly the Redeemer. (2.) He is a living Redeemer. As we are made by a living God, so we are saved by a living Redeemer, who is both almighty and eternal, and is therefore able to save to the uttermost. Of him it is witnessed that he liveth,Hebrews 7:8; Revelation 1:18. We are dying, but he liveth, and hath assured us that because he lives we shall live also,John 14:19. (3.) There are those that through grace have an interest in this Redeemer, and can, upon good grounds, call him theirs. When Job had lost all his wealth and all his friends, yet he was not separated from Christ, nor cut off from his relation to him: "Still he is my Redeemer." That next kinsman adhered to him when all his other kindred forsook him, and he had the comfort of it. (4.) Our interest in the Redeemer is a thing that may be known; and, where it is known, it may be triumphed in, as sufficient to balance all our griefs: I know (observe with what an air of assurance he speaks it, as one confident of this very thing), I know that my Redeemer lives. His friends have often charged him with ignorance or vain knowledge; but he knows enough, and knows to good purpose, who knows Christ to be his Redeemer. (5.) There will be a latter day, a last day, a day when time shall be no more,Revelation 10:6. That is a day we are concerned to think of every day. (6.) Our Redeemer will at that day stand upon the earth, or over the earth, to summon the dead out of their graves, and determine them to an unchangeable state; for to him all judgment is committed. He shall stand, at the last, on the dust to which this earth will be reduced by the conflagration.

      2. He believes the happiness of the redeemed, and his own title to that happiness, that, at Christ's second coming, believers shall be raised up in glory and so made perfectly blessed in the vision and fruition of God; and this he believes with application to himself. (1.) He counts upon the corrupting of his body in the grave, and speaks of it with a holy carelessness and unconcernedness: Though, after my skin (which is already wasted and gone, none of it remaining but the skin of my teeth,Job 19:20; Job 19:20) they destroy (those that are appointed to destroy it, the grave and the worms in it of which he had spoken, Job 17:14; Job 17:14) this body. The word body is added: "Though they destroy this, this skeleton, this shadow (Job 17:7; Job 17:7), this that I lay my hand upon," or (pointing perhaps to his weak and withered limbs) "this that you see, call it what you will; I expect that shortly it will be a feast for the worms." Christ's body saw not corruption, but ours must. And Job mentions this, that the glory of the resurrection he believed and hoped for might shine the more brightly. Note, It is good for us often to think, not only of the approaching death of our bodies, but of their destruction and dissolution in the grave; yet let not that discourage our hope of their resurrection, for the same power that made man's body at first, out of common dust, can raise it out of its own dust. This body which we now take such care about, and make such provision for, will in a little time be destroyed. Even my reins (says Job) shall be consumed within me (Job 19:27; Job 19:27); the innermost part of the body, which perhaps putrefies first. (2.) He comforts himself with the hopes of happiness on the other side death and the grave: After I shall awake (so the margin reads it), though this body be destroyed, yet out of my flesh shall I see God. [1.] Soul and body shall come together again. That body which must be destroyed in the grave shall be raised again, a glorious body: Yet in my flesh I shall see God. The separate soul has eyes wherewith to see God, eyes of the mind; but Job speaks of seeing him with eyes of flesh, in my flesh, with my eyes; the same body that died shall rise again, a true body, but a glorified body, fit for the employments and entertainments of that world, and therefore a spiritual body,1 Corinthians 15:44. Let us therefore glorify God with our bodies because there is such a glory designed for them. [2.] Job and God shall come together again: In my flesh shall I see God, that is, the glorified Redeemer, who is God. I shall see God in my flesh (so some read it), the Son of God clothed with a body which will be visible even to eyes of flesh. Though the body, in the grave, seem despicable and miserable, yet it shall be dignified and made happy in the vision of God. Job now complained that he could not get a sight of God (Job 23:8; Job 23:9), but hoped to see him shortly, never more to lose the sight of him, and that sight of him will be the more welcome after the present darkness and distance. Note, It is the blessedness of the blessed that they shall see God, shall see him as he is, see him face to face, and no longer through a glass darkly. See with what pleasure holy Job enlarges upon this (Job 19:27; Job 19:27): "Whom I shall see for myself," that is, "see and enjoy, see to my own unspeakable comfort and satisfaction. I shall see him as mine, as mine with an appropriating sight," Revelation 21:3. God himself shall be with them and be their God; they shall be like him, for they shall see him as he is, that is seeing for themselves, 1 John 3:2. My eyes shall behold him, and not another. First, "He, and not another for him, shall be seen, not a type or figure of him, but he himself." Glorified saints are perfectly sure that they are not imposed upon; it is no deceptio visus--illusion of the senses. Secondly, "I, and not another for me, shall see him. Though my flesh and body be consumed, yet I shall not need a proxy; I shall see him with my own eyes." This was what Job hoped for, and what he earnestly desired, which, some think, is the meaning of the last clause: My reins are spent in my bosom, that is, "all my desires are summed up and concluded in this; this will crown and complete them all; let me have this, and I shall have nothing more to desire; it is enough; it is all." With this the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.

      IV. The application of this to his friends. His creed spoke comfort to himself, but warning and terror to those that set themselves against him.

      1. It was a word of caution to them not to proceed and persist in their unkind usage of him, Job 19:28; Job 19:28. He had reproved them for what they had said, and now tells them what they should say for the reducing of themselves and one another to a better temper. "Why persecute we him thus? Why do we grieve him and vex him, by censuring and condemning him, seeing the root of the matter, or the root of the word, is found in him?" Let this direct us, (1.) In our care concerning ourselves. We are all concerned to see to it that the root of the matter be found in us. A living, quickening, commanding, principle of grace in the heart, is the root of the matter, as necessary to our religion as the root to the tree, to which it owes both its fixedness and its fruitfulness. Love to God and our brethren, faith in Christ, hatred of sin--these are the root of the matter; other things are but leaves in comparison with these. Serious godliness is the one thing needful. (2.) In our conduct towards our brethren. We are to believe that many have the root of the matter in them who are not in every thing of our mind--who have their follies, and weaknesses, and mistakes--and to conclude that it is at our peril if we persecute any such. Woe be to him that offends one of those little ones! God will resent and revenge it. Job and his friends differed in some notions concerning the methods of Providence, but they agreed in the root of the matter, the belief of another world, and therefore should not persecute one another for these differences.

      2. It was a word of terror to them. Christ's second coming will be very dreadful to those that are found smiting their fellow servants (Matthew 24:49), and therefore (Job 19:29; Job 19:29), "Be you afraid of the sword, the flaming sword of God's justice, which turns every way; fear, lest you make yourselves obnoxious to it." Good men need to be frightened from sin by the terrors of the Almighty, particularly from the sin of rashly judging their brethren, Matthew 7:1; James 3:1. Those that are peevish and passionate with their brethren, censorious of them and malicious towards them, should know, not only that their wrath, whatever it pretends, works not the righteousness of God, but that, (1.) They may expect to smart for it in this world: It brings the punishments of the sword. Wrath leads to such crimes as expose men to the sword of the magistrate. God himself often takes vengeance for it, and those that showed no mercy shall find no mercy. (2.) If they repent not, that will be an earnest of worse. By these you may know there is a judgment, not only a present government, but a future judgment, in which hard speeches must be accounted for.