Font Size
After beginning with an expression of impatience with the comforters (vv.2-6), Job charges God with vicious treatment. The imagery employed by Job is graphic. God destroys him as a building is destroyed and as a tree is uprooted (v.10). He moves against Job as an army moves against an enemy (vv.11-12).
God’s treatment has brought about ostracism. He has been alienated and estranged from all human relationships (vv.13-17). He has been denied the normal convention of courtesy (v.18) and the anticipated response of love (v.19). His experience has been so harrowing that he has barely survived (v.20). He begs his friends to desist from attacking him; they already have their pound of flesh (vv.21-22).
But in spite of his physical weakness, Job is certain of vindication. So certain is he that he wants his words of protestation preserved for future generations (19:23-24). His vindication will be brought about by his Redeemer (v.25). In Israel the redeemer was usually the nearest kinsman who was obligated to exact vengeance in a blood feud (Dt 19:6-12; 2Sa 14:11) and to look after the interests of the family members for whom he was responsible. This term is often applied to the Lord as the deliverer of Israel from bondage in Egypt (Ex 6:6; 15:3) and in Babylon (Jer 50:34). It is also used of the Lord’s deliverance of a person from imminent death (Ps 103:4; La 3:58). Given Job’s present situation and his rejection by the comforters, it is quite obvious why Job asserts his belief in the Redeemer. What he needs is not so much physical help as moral vindication.
V.26 has been translated in several ways, but these translations fall essentially into one of two categories: from (perspective) my flesh I shall see God or from (privative, i.e., out of) my flesh I shall see God. If it is the former, then Job is referring to the theophany he experiences in chs. 38-41. After it is over, he concludes “Now my eyes have seen you” (42:5). On the other hand, if the latter translation is followed, then Job seems to anticipate an afterlife which will result in his seeing God.