Job 19 · The Lantern

Then responded Job, and said:—

How long will ye grieve my soul? or crush me with words?

These ten times, have ye reviled me, Shameless ye wrong me.

"Only know that the Lord has dealt with me thus.… You speak against me; you do not feel for me but bear hard upon me.… May the dignity of him who punishes me make you change your mind," he says. We do not have to trample underfoot the people who are punished by God, but we must shed tears and grieve over their fate.

Lo, these ten times ye confound me. On enumerating the successive times of the speeches of Job's friends, we learn that as yet they had spoken but five times. But for this reason, that he had five times heard rebukes from them, and five times himself replied to their rebukes, he says that he had been ten times confounded; because both herein, viz.

It is tolerable if someone speaks against his own friend once, but if the man says the same things over and over he seems to be firmly established in malice, and so he then says, "Behold! You have confused me ten times," both by speaking yourselves and by listening to me with some anger.

And even if indeed I have erred, with myself lodgeth mine error.

"And if I—let us suppose—had done things that should not have been done, even if I had been in such a condition, was it not necessary just the same that you felt ashamed while seeing my afflictions, disease, worms and loss of goods? But you approach me without commiserating with me and without feeling any sympathy for my adversities."

And be it indeed that I have been ignorant, my ignorance remaineth with myself. Heretics have this about them, that they are swoln by the empty pretensions of their knowledge, and often turn to ridicule the simplicity of those that believe rightly, and account the life of the humble to be of no worth.

Among other reproaches Baldath seems to have blamed him for ignorance, when he had said, "Understand first and then we will speak." (18:2) The friends certainly should have tolerated this ignorance.

If indeed, against me, ye must needs magnify yourselves, and plead, against me, my reproach.

But ye are set up against me. HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION But perhaps we shall consider these words more thoroughly, if we point out how they apply to the friends of blessed Job personally in a special sense.

So he then says, "But you raise yourselves up against me," showing your excellence, "and you blame me for my disgraces," i.e., which only concern me and do not burden others.

Know, then, that, God, hath overthrown me, and, within his net, enclosed me.

Lo! I cry—out: Violence! but receive no answer, I cry aloud, but there is no vindication;

"I will cry out, and there is nowhere judgment; I still contend." This is as if Job had said, "I cried out like an athlete in the stadium, but my judgment is nowhere there. Indeed, I still fight.

Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard; I cry aloud, but there is no one to Judge. Almighty God, knowing what has in it efficacy to prove our good, shuts His ears to hear the voice of persons mourning, that He may add to their advantage, that their life may be purified by punishment, that the tranquillity of rest which can no where be found here, may be sought for elsew…

Cure can be found in adversities first through human aid in two ways. In one way in the deed itself, for example, when someone is violently oppressed by someone else and he receives aid from another.

My way, hath he walled up, that I cannot pass, and, upon my paths, hath he made darkness rest;

"No speech," Job says, "can describe my misfortunes. As those who are surrounded on every side by a wall or are oppressed by darkness, I cannot proceed any further. So, it is impossible for me to escape these calamities."

He hath fenced up my way, that I cannot pass: and He hath set darkness in my paths. He saw his 'way fenced up' with strokes, when anxiously desiring to pass into a state of security, he was not able to escape the scourges, and whereas he saw himself smitten, and yet did not find in himself a life worthy of such smiting, as it were 'in the paths' of the heart he met with 'the da…

Second, a cure is found in adversities by the man himself who escapes adversities in two ways. In the first way, by his power, and he excludes this saying, "He has obstructed my path and I cannot pass," as if he should say: He has placed so many impediments to my advance that I cannot remove them.

My glory—from off me, hath he stripped, and hath removed the crown of my head;

He says that his crown was taken away from him, that is, he also was a king before, or … "He tore me off," he says, "and like a tree he cut away all my hopes from the roots. Like an enemy who is inflamed with anger, he destroyed all my prosperity." Job correctly says "like an enemy," because God does not inflict torments with an angry or hostile mind.

He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION That all this suits the person of the blessed man set in the midst of tribulation, there can be no doubt; but, since the words of the historical account are plain, they do not require explaining after the letter, therefore they have to be traced out in their mystical senses.

Then, after he has excluded the cures, he adds the adversities, beginning with the exterior goods which he lost. He places first among these the loss of honor and glory when he says, "He stripped me of my glory," because although he had previously been held in honor and reverence, now even those younger in age derided him, as the text says further on in Chapter Thirty (v.1).

He hath ruined me on every side, and I am gone, and he hath taken away—like a tree—my hope;

Yea he hath kindled against me his anger, and accounted me towards him like unto his adversaries;

He hath also kindled His wrath against me, and He counteth me unto Him as one of His enemies. For we have, been taught by the excellent Preacher attesting it, that 'God is faithful, Who will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it.' Moreover the Lord says by the Prophet, For I hav…

The root of hope is twofold: one is on the part of divine aid, the other on the part of human aid. The root of the hope which comes from divine aid seemed to have been torn up by the fact that God seemed gravely angry with him according to the opinion of those who put divine punishment only in the adversities of this life, and so he says, "His fury has been roused against me,"…

Together, enter his troops and have cast up, against me, their mound, and have encamped all around my tent;

"His robbers came together, and through me they made their own way." Either Job employs use of the simile that he had chosen in order to say that he is exposed to the attack of the enemies and that they go back and forth without any obstacle on their open way, or he refers to the messenger who announced to him those misfortunes that had befallen him.

His robbers come together, and make themselves a way through me. For 'his robbers' are evil spirits, who busy themselves in hunting out the deaths of men; and these 'make themselves a way' in the hearts of the afflicted, when, amidst the adversities that are undergone outwardly, they do not cease to infuse bad thoughts likewise; of whom it is yet further added; And encamp round…

He puts the sign of God's anger and hatred next when he continues, "His hired robbers came all at once." The term "hired robbers" means the Sabeans (1:15), the Chaldeans (1:17) and the demons (c.1) who together laid waste his goods almost like a conspiracy. He terms them "robbers hired by God" as though this happened from divine ordination, as even the friends of Job had said.

My Brethren—from beside me, hath he moved far away, and, mine acquaintance, are wholly estranged from me;

Failed me, have my near of kin, and, mine intimate acquaintances, have forgotten me;

Ye guests of my house and my maidens, A stranger, have ye accounted me, An alien, have I become in their eyes;

To mine own servant, I called, and he would not answer, With mine own mouth, I kept entreating him;

My breath, is strange to my wife, and I am loathsome to the sons of my own mother;

Even young children, despise me, I rise up, and they speak against me;

All the men of mine intimate circle abhor me, and, these whom I loved, have turned against me;

Unto my skin and unto my flesh, have my bones cleaved, and I have escaped with the akin of my teeth.

"My flesh is corrupt under my skin, and my teeth grip my bones." "While I am alive," Job says, "my flesh putrefies, and my bones are chewed by the teeth of some wild animal."

My bone cleaveth to my skin, through my flesh being wasted. By 'bone' we have strength, and by flesh weakness of the body denoted; therefore, whereas Christ and the Church are one person, what is signified by the 'bone' but the Lord Himself? what by the 'flesh' save the disciples, who in the hour of His Passion were weakly disposed?

So after he has describes the adversities, which belong to exterior things, he remarks about the consumption of his own body saying, "My bone clung to my skin, after my flesh was consumed," because his flesh had been so consumed from the gravity of his illness that his skin clung to his bones.

Pity me! pity me! ye, my friends, for, the hand of GOD, hath stricken me!

The noble Job in his harsh adversity cried out in blame not misery. That is to say, 'You're meant to be merciful not unjustly reproach me! Instead you assail me and overwhelm a man with whose sufferings you ought to show sympathy for friendship's sake.

Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me. HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION Therefore these particulars being finished, which he spoke in the voice of the Head, blessed Job is brought back to his own words, saying; Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

After he has enumerated his own adversities, he invites them to compassion, doubling his request for mercy because of the great number of his miseries saying, "Have pity on me, have pity on me, you, at least, who are my friends," because I have been abandoned by others.

Wherefore should ye persecute me as GOD? and, with my flesh, should not he satisfied?

"Why do you persecute me as also the Lord does, and are not satisfied with my flesh? Why do you add your wrath to divine wrath without doing this according to God's will? Even though God punishes, he, nonetheless, wants to be good to us—and therefore, why do you insatiably use the harshness of your words against me?" In fact, abusive words are sufficient to devour flesh.

Why do ye persecute me as God; and are filled with my flesh? It is not at variance with the style of piety that he tells that he is persecuted by God. For there is a good persecutor; as when the Lord says of Himself by the lips of the Prophet, Him that privily slandereth his neighbour, him did I persecute.

For he understood that he had been smitten by God. It does not seem fitting for a man to add affliction to someone who has been afflicted, and so he says, "Why do you persecute me like God?" as if to say: The persecution which comes from God is enough for me, but it was more your duty to bring consolation.

Oh, then, that my words, could be written, Oh that, in a record, they could be inscribed:

We desire what we have said with a troubled mind not be confusedly relegated to oblivion as a cause of shame. On the contrary we want what we have said seriously and carefully to be fixed in the memory and remain in the mouth of many people.

O that my words were now written! O that they were graven in a book with an iron pen, and a plate of lead, or surely that they were hewed in the flint!

Job had said above that his hope had been taken away, "like an uprooted tree." (19:10) He certainly said this referring to the hope of recovering temporal prosperity, to which the friends urged him many times. But he showed in many ways above (vv.11-20) that he ought not to have this hope by reducing their arguments to various unfitting conclusions.

That, with a stylus of iron and [with] lead, for all time—in the rock, they could be graven!

But, I, know that, my redeemer, liveth, and, as the Last over [my] dust, will he arise;

"For I know that my Redeemer lives and that at last he will be revealed upon the earth." Here the blessed Job predicts the future manifestation of Emmanuel in the flesh at the end of time.

For I know that my Redeemer liveth. LITERAL INTERPRETATION For he who does not say, 'Creator,' but 'Redeemer,' expressly tells of Him, Who after He created all things, appeared Incarnate amongst us, that He might redeem us from a state of bondage, and by His Passion set us free from death everlasting; and mark with what sure faith he makes himself secure in the power of His Div…

He shows what the discourses are he would like to be preserved with such great diligence adding, "For I know that my redeemer lives." He clearly attributes this to the manner of a cause. Things which we are not sure of we are not anxious to commit to memory, and so he clearly says, "For I know," namely by the certitude of faith.

And, though, after my skin is struck off, this [followeth], yet, apart from my flesh, shall I see GOD:

"He will raise up my body that endures these sufferings, for it is the Lord who caused them." Did Job know the doctrine of resurrection? I believe so, and the doctrine concerning the resurrection of the body, unless he says here that the resurrection that he speaks about is the deliverance from the afflictions that pressed him.

And I shall be again encompassed with my skin. But see, I hear of the resurrection, but it is the effect of the resurrection that I am searching out.

There were other men who said that men will rise by resuming not an earthly body, but some kind of heavenly body. To exclude this he then says, "I will be surrounded again with my own skin." He expressly says this because he had said above (v.20) that only the skin had remained around his bones.

Whom, I myself, shall see, on my side, and, mine own eyes, [shall] have looked upon, and not those of a stranger. Exhausted are my deepest desires in my bosom!

Surely ye should say—Why should we persecute him? seeing, the root of the matter, is found in me.

Be ye afraid—on your part—of the face of the sword, because, wrath, [bringeth] the punishments of the sword, to the end ye may know the Almighty.

Job19