Job 19:13 Commentary and Bible Study

Job lists the relationships which have broken down. One after another of those who should have brought him consolation have been taken away. When the believer passes through deep waters, which shake the foundation of his peace and wellbeing, and when his soul is oppressed by great fears which threaten him with their dreadful images, then he seeks comfort where he can. He knows that none but the Lord can fully deliver him, but it is some consolation to have sympathetic friends around him. Knowing that they would be willing to exchange places with him and failing this will remain loyal to him and do whatever is in their power to support him, brings some relief. They like him are mortal and subject to disease and temptation and weakness, and even if their combine resources cannot overcome such afflictions, the knowledge that they would try, if they could, dissipates the isolation that he sufferer feels. But when our defences are down, every cruel word penetrates to the core of our person, causing extreme pain.But Job had lost his closest friends and relatives, those who should have been the last to abandon him. His brothers – probably, metaphorical – had gone far from him, convinced that he was a wicked man, and determined not to be taken in by him. When they saw his suffering, they were perplexed, but they concluded they never really known him as they thought they did. There was also a physical repulsion at his diseased condition. As a result, instead of words of kindness and gentleness and sympathy, he received harsh attacks, cruel criticisms, and hopeless forecasts of the future. He was entirely alone, he thought. His close friends had forgotten him – not his existence, but what he had meant to them as a friend. Consequently, all their familiar ways and meaningful personal approaches had ceased, with the implication that he was no longer worthy of their friendship.Moving closer, he speaks of his own home and his family. Surely these would behave differently towards him. When all others abandon us our family remains loyal and behind the door of our own house there is a compact to stick together. But no. His family had turned against him. Other people’s servants may have joined the crowds in no longer showing Job respect, but surely his own servants, who had probably been treated almost as children, would remain loyal. But no; even these had deserted him and regard him as a stranger in his own house. Satan had been allowed to strip away every vestige of Job’s past life from him. He is put in the humiliating position of calling to his servant, who used to serve with please and alacrity, and being altogether ignored by him. He pleads with them, when he should command them. He is treated as one who is no longer capable of giving orders and so can be disregarded without fear of consequences. Job has to beg him to fetch him water of medicine or to do him some small service, and he gets no response.Even his own wife now finds him physically repulsive and wishes to stay away from him, and so he is deprived of the company of the one person in the world who should have stood by him in trouble. She of course had also already become a channel through whom Satan sought to bring him down (Job 2:9). Even the most tender appeal – an appeal on the basis of their children together – could not persuade her. In an age when society was characterised by great deference towards the aged – as evidenced by Elihu’s reluctance to speak before those who were older than him, and by the adherence to protocol that surrounded the dialogue between Job and the three comforters – it is all the more shocking that children should have broken these customs and treated Job with disdain. They made no effort to hide their contempt for him. They just about allowed him to go out of their presence before speaking openly against him, drawing attention no doubt to his miserable state and appearance, and joining other in saying that he had brought all this on himself as a man now cursed by God.