Job 19:9

⁸He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness. ⁹He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head. ¹⁰He tears me down on every side until I am gone; He uproots my hope like a tree.

Summary

In this verse, Job expresses his deep distress and anguish, feeling abandoned and forsaken by both God and his closest companions. Despite his suffering, Job's faith is tested as he grapples with the feeling of being alone in his trials. This verse captures the intense emotional turmoil Job experiences, highlighting the profound sense of isolation and despair he endures during his time of great affliction. Job's lament serves as a poignant reminder of the challenges and struggles faced by believers, showing the raw honesty and vulnerability in expressing pain and questioning God's presence in times of trouble. Ultimately, Job's story reflects the human experience of suffering and the need for unwavering faith in God's sovereignty, even in the midst of profound adversity.

Commentary

Adam Clarke
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
John Gill
Tyndale

Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

He hath stripped me of my glory - I am reduced to such circumstances, that I have lost all my honor and respect.

John Gill Bible Commentary

He hath destroyed me on every side,.... To be "troubled on every side" is much, as the apostles were, Co2 4:8; but to be destroyed on every side, and all around, is more, and denotes utter destruction; it may have respect to the rein of his substance and family, which were all demolished at once; his oxen and asses, which were on one side, his camels on other, his sheep on another, and his children on another, and all destroyed in one day, and perhaps in a few hours; and also to his body, which God had made, and had fashioned together round about; but now he had suffered it to be smitten with ulcers from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet; and this earthly tabernacle of his was demolishing on every side, and just falling down; for the allusion is either to the demolition of a building, or to the rooting up of a tree, and so continued in the next clause; comparing himself to a tree, that is dug about on all sides, and its roots laid bare, and these and all their fibres cut off, so that it is utterly destroyed from growing any more, but becomes dead; and this Job thought to be his case: and I am gone; or am a dead man, just going out of the world, the way of all flesh; and because of the certainty of it, and of its being very quickly, in a few minutes, as it were, he speaks of it as if it already was: wherefore it follows, and my hope he hath removed like a tree; not like a tree that is cut down to its roots, which remain in the ground, and may sprout out again, Job 14:7; nor like a tree that is taken up with its roots, and removed to another place, and planted in another soil, where it may grow as well or better; but like a tree cut off from its roots, or pulled up by the roots, and laid upon the ground, when there can be no hope of its ever growing again; and so the hope of Job was like that; not his hope of salvation, of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal life, which was strong and firm, Job 13:15; nor can a good and well grounded hope be removed; not the grace of hope, which is an abiding one; nor the ground of hope, which is Christ and his righteousness, upon which hope, as an anchor, being cast, is sure and steadfast; nor the object of hope, eternal glory and happiness laid up in heaven: but this is to be interpreted of Job's hope of a restoration to outward happiness, which his friends would have had him entertain, in case of repentance and reformation; but Job, as he was not sensible of his need of the one, as his friends understood it, he had no hope of the other, see Job 6:11.