1 Then Iob answered, and sayd,
2 How long will yee vexe my soule, and breake me in pieces with words?
3 These tenne times haue ye reproched me: you are not ashamed that you make your selues strange to me.
4 And be it indeed that I haue erred, mine errour remaineth with my selfe.
5 If indeed yee will magnifie your selues against me, and plead against me my reproch:
6 Know now that God hath ouerthrowen me, and hath compassed me with his net.
7 Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloude, but there is no iudgement.
8 Hee hath fenced vp my way that I cannot passe; and hee hath set darkenesse in my pathes.
9 Hee hath stript me of my glory, and taken the crowne from my head.
10 He hath destroyed me on euery side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he remooued like a tree.
11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and hee counteth me vnto him as one of his enemies.
12 His troupes come together, and raise vp their way against me, and encampe round about my tabernacle.
13 Hee hath put my brethren farre from me, and mine acquaintance are verely estranged from me.
14 My kinsefolke haue failed, and my familiar friends haue forgotten me.
15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maides count me for a stranger: I am an aliant in their sight.
16 I called my seruant, and he gaue me no answere: I intreated him with my mouth.
17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I entreated for the childrens sake of mine owne body.
18 Yea, yong children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.
19 All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loued, are turned against me.
20 My bone cleaueth to my skinne, and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skinne of my teeth.
21 Haue pity vpon me, haue pitie vpon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
22 Why doe ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh that my wordes were now written, oh that they were printed in a booke!
24 That they were grauen with an iron pen and lead, in the rocke for euer.
25 For I know that my Redeemer liueth, and that he shall stand at the latter day, vpon the earth:
26 And though after my skin, wormes destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
27 Whom I shal see for my selfe, and mine eyes shall beholde, and not another, though my reines bee consumed within me.
28 But ye should say, Why persecute we him? seeing the root of the matter is found in me.
29 Bee ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that yee may know there is a iudgement.
Job complains of unkind usage. (1-7) God was the Author of his afflictions. (8-22) Job's belief in the resurrection. (23-29)1-7 Job's friends blamed him as a wicked man, because he was so afflicted; here he describes their unkindness, showing that what they condemned was capable of excuse. Harsh language from friends, greatly adds to the weight of afflictions: yet it is best not to lay it to heart, lest we harbour resentment. Rather let us look to Him who endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, and was treated with far more cruelty than Job was, or we can be.
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 does not weaken the proof of his being a child of God and heir of glory.
23-29 The Spirit of God, at this time, seems to have powerfully wrought on the mind of Job. Here he witnessed a good confession; declared the soundness of his faith, and the assurance of his hope. Here is much of Christ and heaven; and he that said such things are these, declared plainly that he sought the better country, that is, the heavenly. Job was taught of God to believe in a living Redeemer; to look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come; he comforted himself with the expectation of these. Job was assured, that this Redeemer of sinners from the yoke of Satan and the condemnation of sin, was his Redeemer, and expected salvation through him; and that he was a living Redeemer, though not yet come in the flesh; and that at the last day he would appear as the Judge of the world, to raise the dead, and complete the redemption of his people. With what pleasure holy Job enlarges upon this! May these faithful sayings be engraved by the Holy Spirit upon our hearts. We are all concerned to see that the root of the matter be in us. A living, quickening, commanding principle of grace in the heart, is the root of the matter; as necessary to our religion as the root of the tree, to which it owes both its fixedness and its fruitfulness. Job and his friends differed concerning the methods of Providence, but they agreed in the root of the matter, the belief of another world.
Commentary by Matthew Henry, 1710.