Job 19 and Book of job

Job 19 is Job's first speech that ends on an upbeat or assertive note. Earlier he concluded his thoughts with lines such as "trouble comes" (3:26); "I shall lie in the earth" (7:21); "land of gloom" (10:22); "mourn only for themselves" (14:21); and "go the way from which I shall not return (16:22)." This time he concludes with a vigorous warning to the friends. The sword, which they think brings judgment on Job will bring it on them (19:28-29). What is to account for this change? The fact that in Job 19 he will "discover" a Redeemer. Finally he has someone who not only will speak for him but also will act in his behalf. Hope's gradualism is rewarded. Now that he has a Vindicator or Redeemer (Hebrew "goel"), he knows his affairs will be set right.*

*[See the series of Advanced Essays on Conjuring Hope I-IV for a detailed treatment. The fourth mini-essay spends time on the hopeful statement of Job 19:25.]

Touche, Bildad

Recall that Bildad, in describing the ghastly fate of the wicked, said, "For they are thrust into a net by their own feet, and they walk into a pitfall (18:8)." That is, people are responsible for their own distress. Job will have none of it in his case. "Know then that God has put me in the wrong, and closed his net around me (19:6)." In other words Job is saying, 'Don't try to make me shoulder what is truly God's responsibility. I'll not take that.'

A Kaleidoscope of Catastrophes

Job 19: 7-22 is matched only by 16:7-14 in the intensity of piled-up images of distress that God brought upon Job. Each image presents its own violent chamber of horrors as it fades into the next. To take a picture from the prophet Amos, it is "as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear (Am 5:18)." Job is assaulted (v. 7); his path is unexpectedly blocked leaving him exposed in the night (v. 8); he is stripped of his honors (v. 9); broken on every side (v. 10); uprooted like a tree (v.10), besieged like a city (v. 11); abandoned by servant and relative alike (vv. 11ff). "Even young children despise me; when I rise, they talk against me (19:18)." Any one of these terrors would have undone a strong person; Job experiences their simultaneous concatenation.

Hope Surges

Hope shines the brightest in the darkest night. After expressing his earnest desire for his words to be recorded (19:23-24; he got his wish!), he says , "I know (and I am very sure) that my Redeemer (or Vindicator or Champion) lives, and afterwards he will rise upon the earth (19:25)." This Redeemer is known to the Israelite tradition as one who will protect the interests of or avenge a kinsman when he is in dire straits. Whether Job will see this Redeemer or see God, and how and when this will happen is unclear in the following verses, but the bottom line is that Job now has someone to act (not merely testify) on his behalf. Struggling hope has now reached full and confident expression.

This unparalleled hope will buoy Job for the rest of the chapter. It will not, however, prevent his further use of legal imagery (Job 23) and even expressions of distress. But now Job has reached an intellectual and spiritual turning point. Nothing now can take away his hope.

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