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Job 19

Job sets his hope in a living Redeemer amid unanswered cries, bodily ruin, and the rejection of those he loves.

Job answers his friends’ accusations by describing how their words add to his suffering. He says God has trapped him and treated him as an enemy, while relatives, servants, and friends have pulled away. He begs his friends for pity and wishes his testimony could be carved into rock. Then he declares that his Redeemer lives and that he will see God. He closes by warning his accusers that they too face judgment.

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2“How long will you torment me, and crush me with words?
3You have reproached me ten times. You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.
4If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.
5If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach,
6know 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.
8He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.
9He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
10He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. He has plucked my hope up like a tree.
11He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries.
12His 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.
14My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.
16I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I beg him with my mouth.
17My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.
18Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.
19All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.
20My 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.
22Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
23“Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!
25But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
26After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh,
27whom I, even I, will see on my side. My eyes will see, and not as a stranger. “My heart is consumed within me.
28If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’ because the root of the matter is found in me,
29be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Job 19:25Job’s confidence in a living Redeemer breaks into his lament before his suffering or his friends’ accusations have ended.
Job 19:26The prospect of seeing God reaches beyond Job’s ruined skin, though the timing and bodily details remain debated.
Job 19:13Estrangement from brothers and acquaintances shows how Job’s suffering has spread beyond his body into his closest relationships.
Where this chapter reaches

Psalm and Lamentations share Job’s language of unanswered cries, estranged companions, and suffering described as God’s assault. Isaiah shares the figure of God as Redeemer, linking the hope of vindication here with declarations that God defends and rescues his people.

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After reading the whole chapter

Which detail in Job’s account of rejection shapes how you understand his plea for pity?

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How does Job’s confidence in his Redeemer stand alongside his sense that God has trapped him?

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Questions people ask about Job 19

Who is the Redeemer in Job 19:25?

A redeemer is someone who takes up another person’s cause and secures their rights. Job expects a living defender who will have the final word. The figure’s precise identity is debated, though Job connects this hope with seeing God on his side. Christian readers have long understood its fulfillment in Christ.

Does Job 19:26 teach resurrection?

The supplied translation places Job’s vision of God after the destruction of his skin and includes the phrase “in my flesh,” which supports a resurrection reading. The Hebrew wording is difficult, and interpreters differ about the timing and bodily condition envisioned. Job’s firm expectation is that he himself will see God.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).