The Book of Job

Word Study

"have pity," Hebrew chonnuni (חָנֻּנִי) from chanan, to show favour, be gracious, have mercy. Before the great confession comes the deepest cry of loneliness in the book. Job has just described total abandonment: "he hath put my brethren far from me... my kinsfolk have failed... my breath is strange to my wife... all my inward friends abhorred me" (v13-19). He is utterly alone, escaped only "with the skin of my teeth" (v20). Out of that isolation he cries, doubled for intensity, "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends." It is a plea for the simplest human mercy, compassion, from the very men who have given him only accusation. This heart-cry, rising from a man forsaken by all, prepares us to see the One who would answer every such cry.

"touched," naga (נָגְעָה), touched, struck, stricken. And note the reason Job gives: "for the hand of God hath touched me." The word is gentle on the surface and terrible underneath; the touch of that hand is a striking. Job knows his affliction is from God's hand, yet he does not conclude, as the friends do, that this makes him a target for scorn. Rather, the fact that God has stricken him is precisely why he needs pity, not blame. How different this is from the friends' cold logic. A man under the hand of God should be met with compassion, not condemnation.

Explanation

Before the great confession comes the loneliest cry in the book. Utterly abandoned, by brethren, kinsfolk, wife, and friends, escaped only "with the skin of my teeth," Job pleads, doubled for intensity, "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me." He asks the simplest human mercy from men who have given him only accusation. And his reason is striking: "the hand of God hath touched me." Job knows his suffering is from God, yet sees that as the reason he needs pity, not blame. A man under God's hand should be met with compassion. This cry from a man forsaken by all prepares us for the One who answers it.

Gospel Focus

"Have pity upon me... for the hand of God hath touched me", Job's cry from total abandonment points us to the One who was abandoned as no other, and who is full of pity for the afflicted. Jesus knew the utter forsakenness Job describes: "he came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11); "all the disciples forsook him, and fled" (Matthew 26:56); and on the cross, forsaken even by God, He bore our sin. He truly had "the hand of God" laid on Him, "it pleased the LORD to bruise him" (Isaiah 53:10), not for His own sin but for ours. And because He entered our forsakenness, He is the compassionate High Priest who never fails to pity the hurting: "we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews 4:15). Where Job's friends refused him pity, Jesus is "moved with compassion" toward the multitudes (Matthew 9:36), and He calls, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). The plea Job aimed at deaf friends finds an open ear in Christ, who was Himself forsaken and stricken, and who therefore is able and willing to have mercy on all who cry to Him. No one who cries "have pity upon me" to the Lord Jesus is ever turned away.

Word Study

"redeemer," Hebrew go'eli (גֹּאֲלִי) from ga'al, the kinsman-redeemer, the near relative who buys back, avenges, vindicates, and rescues his kinsman. Here, from the bottom of the pit, blazes the brightest confession in the book: "For I know that my redeemer liveth." The word go'el is rich: it is the kinsman-redeemer, the near relative whose duty was to redeem his kinsman from debt or slavery, to buy back lost inheritance, to avenge wrong, to vindicate and restore, exactly the role Boaz played for Ruth. Job, who has cried out for a daysman (9:33), a witness (16:19), and a surety (17:3), now names the One he has been reaching for all along, and he calls Him my redeemer.

"liveth," chai (חַי), living, alive. Job declares this with settled certainty, "I know", and what he knows is that his Redeemer is not a hoped-for figure but a living One. Note the fourfold force of the confession: Job's Redeemer is personal ("my redeemer"), living ("liveth"), certain ("I know"), and coming ("shall stand at the latter day"). This is one of the most astonishing flashes of revelation in the Old Testament, a suffering man, stripped of everything, seeing across the centuries a living Redeemer. It is the faith that the Gospel would gloriously confirm.

"at the latter day," acharon (אַחֲרוֹן), the last, at the end. "And that he shall stand at the latter day." Job does not expect his vindication tomorrow, or even in his own lifetime; he casts it forward to the last, to the end of all things. Whatever the friends conclude now, and whatever the grave does to him in the meantime, the final word about Job will be spoken by his Redeemer at the last.

"upon the earth," literally, upon the dust. And that Redeemer will not vindicate him from a distance. He will take His stand "upon the earth", upon the very dust, the same dust in which Job now sits scraping his sores and to which his body will return. The place of Job's humiliation is the very place where his Redeemer will one day stand to vindicate him.

Explanation

From the bottom of the pit blazes the brightest confession in the book: "I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth." The word go'el is the kinsman-redeemer, the near relative who buys back, avenges, vindicates, and restores, the role Boaz played for Ruth. Having cried for a daysman, a witness, and a surety, Job now declares with settled certainty that he has such a Redeemer, personal ("my"), living ("liveth"), certain ("I know"), and coming ("shall stand at the latter day"). At the last, this living Redeemer will stand upon the earth to vindicate him, an astonishing flash of revelation confirmed gloriously in the Gospel.

Gospel Focus

"I know that my redeemer liveth", Job's cry is fulfilled beyond all he could have imagined in Jesus Christ, the living Redeemer. He is the true Kinsman-Redeemer, who took our flesh and blood to become our near relative, "forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same" (Hebrews 2:14), that as our Kinsman He might redeem us. And He redeemed us not with silver or gold "but with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18-19), "in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins" (Ephesians 1:7). Above all, He is the living Redeemer: He died for our redemption, but He rose, and "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore" (Revelation 1:18). Job said "my redeemer liveth"; the empty tomb proves it forever. And He "shall stand at the latter day upon the earth", for the same Jesus who ascended "shall so come in like manner" (Acts 1:11); "the Lord himself shall descend from heaven" (1 Thessalonians 4:16); "every eye shall see him" (Revelation 1:7). The living Redeemer will indeed stand upon this earth at the last day to raise the dead and vindicate His own. In Christ, Job's confession is not a dim hope but a certainty sealed in blood and resurrection: our Redeemer lives, He is coming, and because He lives, we shall live also.

Word Study

"worms destroy," from naqaf (נִקְּפוּ), to strike off, destroy round about. Job's hope does not stop at a Redeemer who vindicates; it pierces clean through death to resurrection and the sight of God. "Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God" (v26). He grants the worst first: the verb means to strike off and destroy on every side, and Job knows his body will die and decay in the grave with nothing spared.

"this body," literally, "this", the frame of flesh. The Hebrew is starker than the English, simply "this", as a man might gesture at his own ruined frame, which is exactly what Job, covered with boils and wasted away, could do. It is this body, the very one now failing him, that he has in view, and not some other.

"in my flesh," Hebrew mibbesari (מִבְּשָׂרִי), from/in my flesh. Yet Job declares that "in my flesh", in a real, embodied, physical existence, he shall see God. This is a breathtaking hope of bodily resurrection: not a vague spiritual survival, but that Job himself, in his own flesh, will stand and behold God. In the dim light of the patriarchal age, this is a stunning grasp of the truth the whole Bible confirms and the resurrection of Christ secures.

"shall I see God," echezeh Eloah (אֶחֱזֶה אֱלוֹהַּ), I shall behold God. This is the goal of the whole hope, to behold God face to face. Job emphasizes it: "Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another" (v27). This is deeply personal; Job expects to see God with his own resurrected eyes. His confidence rests not on his understanding of his suffering, which he never received, but on his living Redeemer and the certain hope of seeing God in a resurrected body. The deepest comfort in suffering is not an explanation but this: our Redeemer lives, and we shall see God.

Explanation

Job's hope pierces through death itself. Though his body will die and decay in the grave, "yet in my flesh shall I see God." This is a breathtaking hope of bodily resurrection: not vague survival but that Job himself, in real flesh, with his own eyes, will behold God, "for myself... mine eyes... and not another." In the dim light of the patriarchal age, it is a stunning grasp of the truth the resurrection of Christ secures. Job's comfort rests not on any explanation of his suffering, which he never got, but on a living Redeemer and the certain hope of seeing God in a resurrected body.

Gospel Focus

"Yet in my flesh shall I see God", Job's hope of bodily resurrection and the face-to-face sight of God is made sure in Jesus Christ, the risen Lord. Because Christ rose bodily from the grave, the "firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Corinthians 15:20), all who are His will rise as He rose: "if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him" (1 Thessalonians 4:14). Our lowly bodies, though destroyed by death, will be raised and transformed: "who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body" (Philippians 3:21); "it is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption" (1 Corinthians 15:42). And in that resurrection flesh we shall see God, exactly as Job hoped, for "we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2); "blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8); "his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face" (Revelation 22:3-4). What Job glimpsed from afar is the settled inheritance of every believer: to be raised bodily and to behold God, and to behold Him in the face of Jesus Christ, "God... manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16). This is the hope that outshines every darkness. When suffering strips away everything, as it did for Job, this remains and cannot be taken: my Redeemer lives, and though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God, and my own eyes shall behold Him, and not another. In Christ, that hope is certain.