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One aspect of the enduring power of the Book of Job is the profusion of images of divine attack that pile up in a few passages. Job believes that God considers him an enemy (13:24), and he uses word pictures to capture that reality. At least five different images of divine oppression fly from Job's lips in a mere seven verses in Job 19. Each would be worthy of its own essay. The cumulative effect of these pictures, however, is stunning.

1. Job as Trapped in God's Net (19:6). There is a slight tone of mockery here, for hadn't Bildad just said that the wicked "are thrust into a net by their own feet (18:8)"? Now, by Job's saying that God has "closed his net around me (19:6)," Job is not only returning responsibility for his distress to the right source (i.e., God), but he does so by using an immediately understood image of limitation and frustration.

2. Job as Stymied by God's Wall and Darkness (19:8). The picture in Job 19:8 is of God's putting an insurmountable obstacle directly in Job's path, making him uncertain about what to do until the darkness comes. As every ancient person knew, darkness would then expose Job to extreme danger from robbers and weather.

3. Job as Humiliated by Being Stripped of his Glory (19:9). Though Job has mentioned his experience of humiliation previously (12:4), this experience will become the cornerstone of his last long speech (29-31). There is something about the feeling of being humiliated that can only be spoken once other emotions have already been displayed. The experience of being dishonored and demeaned is so close to the springs of our own sense of identity and self-worth that it lies, so to speak, under the layers of the other emotions. Now Job is getting ready to speak about his abasement, and this image will get him started.

4. Job as Pulled Down and Uprooted (19:10). The two images in 19:10 are tightly-packed and essentially opposite in terms of the "flow" of their actions. The first has Job being broken down like a building or structure; the second has him being rooted up like a tree. First he is knocked down; then he is pulled up. The superstructure collapses; the roots are yanked out. Nothing is left but a pile of rubble and dead roots, which once was the majestic Job. Here again appears that curious word "sabib" ("on every side"-NRSV; cf the essays on Job 10:8). All around, on every side, God had carefully made Job (10:8). Now God is destroying Job "on every side." The destruction is as fully devastating as Job's creation was glorious.

5. Job as a Besieged City (19:12). The divine onslaught is characterized as the coming of troops against Job, troops that set up their siegeworks and encamp against Job's tent. He is vulnerable, exposed and surrounded.

These images tumble one after another with incredible intensity in Job 19. This is also the chapter in which Job expresses his most profound hope in a Redeemer of his life (19:25). Hope and hopelessness are wed here, certainly not for the first or the last time in Job's or our lives.