Job 19:13

_HE HATH PUT MY BRETHREN FAR FROM ME, AND MINE ACQUAINTANCE ARE VERILY ESTRANGED FROM ME._ Brethren - nearest kinsmen, as distinguished from "acquaintance." So "kinsfolk" and "familiar friends" (Job 19:14) correspond in parallelism. The Arabic proverb is, 'The brother' - i:e., the true friend-`is only known in time of need.' ESTRANGED - literally, turn away with disgust х_ ZAARUW_ (H2114)]. Job again unconsciously uses language prefiguring the desertion of Jesus Christ (Job 16:10; Luke 23:49, "All his acquaintance, and the women ... stood afar off;" Psalms 38:11, "My lovers

8-22 How doleful are Job's complaints! What is the fire of hell but the wrath of God! Seared consciences will feel it hereafter, but do not fear it now: enlightened consciences fear it now, but shall not feel it hereafter. It is a very common mistake to think that those whom God afflicts he treats as his enemies. Every creature is that to us which God makes it to be; yet this does not excuse Job's relations and friends. How uncertain is the friendship of men! but if God be our Friend, he will not fail us in time of need. What little reason we have to indulge the body, which, after all our care, is consumed by diseases it has in itself. Job recommends himself to the compassion of his friends, and justly blames their harshness. It is very distressing to one who loves God, to be bereaved at once of outward comfort and of inward consolation; yet if this, and more, come upon a believer, it do...

HE HATH PUT MY BRETHREN - This is a new source of afflication that he had not adverted to before, that God had caused all his children to be estranged from him - a calamity which he regarded as the crown of all his woes. The word rendered “my brethren” (אחי _'âchāy_) means means properly “my brothers” - but whether he means literally his brothers, or whether he designs it to be taken in a figuratie sense as denoting his intimate friends, or those of the same rank in life or calling, it is impossible now to determine. AND MINE ACQUAINTANCE - My friends - on whom I relied in time of calamity. AND VERILY ESTRANGED - They have forgotten me, and treat me as a stranger. What an accurate description is this of what often occurs! In prosperity a man will be surrounded by friends; but as soon as his prosperity is stripped away, and h

EXPOSITION JOB 19:1 Job begins his answer to Bildad's second speech by an expostulation against the unkindness of his friends, who break him in pieces, and torture him, with their reproaches (verses 1-5). He then once more, and more plainly than on any other occasion, recounts his woes. (1) His severe treatment by God (verses 6-13); (2) his harsh usage by his relatives and friends (verses 14-19): and (3) the pain caused him by his disease (verse 20); and appeals to his friends on these grounds for pity and forbearance (verses 21, 22). Next, he proceeds to make his great avowal, prefacing it with a wish for its preservation as a perpetual record (verses 23, 24); the avowal itself follows (verses 25-27); and the speech terminates with a warning to his "comforters,'' that if they continue to pe

HE HATH PUT MY BRETHREN FAR FROM ME,.... As it is one part of business in war to cut off all communication between the enemy and their confederates and auxiliaries, and to hinder them of all the help and assistance from them they can; so Job here represents God dealing with him as with an enemy, and therefore keeps at a distance from him all such from whom he might expect comfort and succour, as particularly his brethren; by whom may be meant such who in a natural relation are strictly and properly brethren; for such Job had, as appears from Job 42:11; who afterwards paid him a visit, and showed brotherly love to him; but for the present the affliction that God laid upon him had such an influence on theft, as to cause them to stand aloof off, and not come near him, and show any regard unto him; and as this was the effect of the afflicting hand of God, Job ascribes it to him, and which

Job 19:1. _Then, Job answered and said, How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?_ They struck at him with their hard words, as if they were breaking stones on the roadside. We ought to be very careful what we say to those who are suffering affliction and trial, for a word, though it seems to be a very little thing, will often cut far more deeply and wound far more terribly than a razor would. So Job says, «How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?» Job 19:3. _These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me._ He means that they had reproached him several times over, and hints that they ought to have been ashamed to act so strangely, so coldly, so untenderly, towards him....

CHAPTER 19 JOB'S REPLY TO BILDAD _ 1. How long will ye vex my soul? (Job 19:1)_ 2. And I am not heard! (Job 19:7) 3. Forsaken of men he pleads to be pitied (Job 19:13) 4. Faith supreme (Job 19:25) 5. The warning to his friends (Job 19:28) Job 19:1. Bildad's scathing speech did not bring Job into the dust. He acknowledges the words vexed his soul and broke him in pieces, but he does not change his viewpoint. He repudiates the guilt with which they charged

JOB 19. JOB'S ANSWER. Here the gradual progress of Job's soul towards faith reaches its climax (Job 19:25 f.). It is to be remembered that Job's problem is in reality twofold: it has a personal side, the problem of his individual relation to God, but also a more general aspect, the problem of the Divine providence. In this chapter we read the solution of the first half on the basis of a great venture of faith; the second half is really never fully solved. JOB 19:1. Job sorrowfully remonstrates with his friends. Even if he has sinned, his sin cannot hurt them (Job 19:4). But the truth is that it is God who is responsible for Job's calamity (Job 19:6)....

Note the Alternation in Job 19:13....

First, his relations outside his own immediate circle and his acquaintances stood aloof from him....