Job 19 · a question people ask
Job says, "God has subverted me" (19:6). Is he right?
These are Job's words: "know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net" (19:6), and "I cry for help, but there is no justice" (19:7). Subverted is, in Hebrew, the verb of Bildad's question, "Does God pervert justice?" (8:3), and Elihu later uses it too: "neither will the Almighty pervert justice" (34:12). The book sets more than one word beside Job's. The LORD had said to Satan, "He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause" (2:3). When the LORD answers Job, he asks, "Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?" (40:8), and Job says, "therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand" (42:3). And the LORD says to Eliphaz, "you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has" (42:7). The book doesn't say which of Job's words each of these has in view, or how they fit together. These notes quote 19:6-12 as Job's words and add no verdict of their own, for or against.
The verses
“know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net. “Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice. He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths. He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. He has plucked my hope up like a tree. He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries. His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent.”
“Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?”
“Yes surely, God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert justice.”
“The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause.””