Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
Job 19:22 belongs to Job's protest to his friends in the long colloquy of chapters 3-31 on the cause and object of human suffering. It stands in the middle of his last reply before his friends cease troubling him, in the midst of their constant accusations, stated and implied, and is best read together with those surrounding accusations and responses. The verse is his appeal for pity and complaint against his three friends and companions, asking why they persecute him as God does, as relentlessly as God, and remain unsatisfied with attacking him. By flesh he means his person or bodily condition, picturing his persecutors as though they would consume his flesh.
His friends keep accusing him of sin and claiming his suffering is caused by it, judging from their own wisdom and observation, having never known a thoroughly good man to be so afflicted, and misapplying true principles by treating his adversity as proof of God's displeasure. Knowing his own integrity, he cannot understand God's dealings with him and cries out against their persecution, yet he does not charge God foolishly. God sees the end from the beginning and is working through the trial, in which Job is disciplined through affliction while his friends misjudge him, what will glorify Himself and bring comfort and hope to thousands of suffering ones and blessing to Job. The answer to which the verse belongs appeals for pity and includes prophecies of Christ.
Job 19:22 belongs to Job's protest to his friends in the long colloquy of chapters 3-31 on the cause and object of human suffering. It stands in the middle of his last reply before his friends cease troubling him, in the midst of their constant accusations, stated and implied, and is best read together with those surrounding accusations and responses. The verse is his appeal for pity and complaint against his three friends and companions, asking why they persecute him as God does, as relentlessly as God, and remain unsatisfied with attacking him. By flesh he means his person or bodily condition, picturing his persecutors as though they would consume his flesh.
His friends keep accusing him of sin and claiming his suffering is caused by it, judging from their own wisdom and observation, having never known a thoroughly good man to be so afflicted, and misapplying true principles by treating his adversity as proof of God's displeasure. Knowing his own integrity, he cannot understand God's dealings with him and cries out against their persecution, yet he does not charge God foolishly. God sees the end from the beginning and is working through the trial, in which Job is disciplined through affliction while his friends misjudge him, what will glorify Himself and bring comfort and hope to thousands of suffering ones and blessing to Job. The answer to which the verse belongs appeals for pity and includes prophecies of Christ.