Job 19:25

(25) For I know that my redeemer liveth. — We must carefully note all the passages which lead up to this one. First, we must bear in mind that Bildad ( Job 18:17-20 ) had threatened Job with the extinction of his name and memory, so he now appeals to the verdict of futurity, and with what success we ourselves who read and repeat and discuss his words are witnesses. Then in Job’s own speeches we have, as early as Job 9:32-35 . his longing for a daysman to come between himself and God. Then in Job 10:7 ; Job 13:15-19 , he emphatically declares his innocence, and appeals to God as conscious of it. In Job 16:19 , he affirms that his witness is in the high heavens; in Job 19:21 of the same chapter he longs for an advocate to plead his cause. In Job 17:3 he calls upon God to be surety for him. Therefore he has already recognised God as his judge, his umpire, his advocate, his witness, and surety, and in some cases by formal confession of the fact, in others by earnest longing after and aspirations for some one to act in that capacity. Here, then, he goes a step further in expression, if not by implication, and declares his knowledge that he has a Goel or Redeemer. This goel was the name given to the next of kin whose duty it was to redeem, ransom, or avenge one who had fallen into debt or bondage, or had been slain in a family feud. In Ruth, for instance, the goel is he who has to marry the widow of his relative, and to continue his name.

The various and conditional functions, then, of this Goel, Job is assured, God will take upon Himself for him; He will avenge his quarrel (comp. Psalm 35:1 ; Psalm 35:23 ), He will be surety for him. He will vindicate him before men and before God Himself; He will do for him what none of his professed friends would undertake to do. And as to this matter, he has not the slightest doubt: he states most emphatically that he himself knows that this Goel liveth. “And I, even I know; as for me, I know that my Vindicator is living, that He liveth, is a reality existing now, and not one to come into existence hereafter, though His manifestation may be a thing of the future, for He shall stand at the last upon the earth,” or, “He shall stand last upon earth” (comp. Isaiah 40:8 ), that is, after all others have passed away and gone down to the bars of the tomb. Now, this alone is assuredly a marvellous confession. It states the reality and eternity of God. It is faith in the I am. This same epithet of Redeemer is applied to God in Ps. 19:15; Isaiah 59:20 ; in the former passage it is coupled with rock, which was the term Bildad bad applied to God ( Job 18:4 ). Upon the earth is literally, upon dust; the word is thus used in Job 41:33. This usage of the same words in the same book, where the meaning is not ambiguous, is strongly against the rendering some have preferred: over the dust, or over my dust.

Job 19:25 . For I know, &c. — Job proceeds now to assign the reason of his confidence in the goodness of his cause, and of his willingness to have the matter depending between him and his friends published and submitted to any trial. I know that my Redeemer liveth — I have no knowledge, nor confidence, nor hope of being restored to the prosperities of this life; yet this one thing I know, which is much more comfortable and considerable, and therein I rejoice, though I be now a dying man, and in a desperate condition for this life; I know that I have a living and powerful Redeemer to plead my cause, and vindicate my person from all severe and unjust censures, and to give sentence for me: a Redeemer, whom I call mine, because I have a particular interest in him, and he hath a particular care of me. Hebrew, ידעתי גאלי חי , jadangti goali chai, I know my living Redeemer; that is, My Redeemer is living, is now living, and I know him: I am acquainted, truly, experimentally, and savingly acquainted with him, because he hath revealed himself to me, and hath given me an understanding to know him. Remember, reader, this knowledge of him, this acquaintance with him, is absolutely necessary to thy salvation. But what Redeemer, and what deliverance, does Job speak of in this and the two following verses?

Answer: Some late interpreters understand this passage metaphorically, of God’s delivering Job out of his afflictions and troubles, and restoring him to his former splendour and happiness in this world; it being, they say, a usual thing in Scripture, to call eminent dangers and calamities death, and great and glorious deliverances a quickening or resurrection. But most interpreters, both ancient and modern, understand it of Christ, and of his resurrection, and of Job’s resurrection to life by his power and goodness. And this seems most probable, for many reasons: 1st, Because a proper and literal interpretation of any passage of Scripture is always to be preferred before the metaphorical, where it suits with the text and with other passages. 2d, Because the Hebrew word, גאל , goel, here used, although sometimes used of God, absolutely or essentially considered, yet most properly agrees to Jesus Christ: for this word is primarily spoken of the next kinsman, whose office it was to redeem, by a price paid, the sold or mortgaged estate of his deceased kinsman, Leviticus 25:25 ; and to revenge his death, Numbers 35:12 , and to maintain his name and honour by raising up a seed to him, Deuteronomy 25:5 .

25 . For I know ] Rather, but I know. This is now something higher to which his mind rises. He desires no doubt to be vindicated before men, and would wish that all generations to come should know his claim to rectitude, when he no more lived himself to make it ( Job 19:23-24 ); but what he desires above all things is that he might see God who now hides His face from him, and meet Him, for the meeting could not but be with joy (cf. ch. Job 23:6 seq .). Job’s problem is first of all a problem of religious life, and only in the second place a speculative one. And the speculative elements in it have no further meaning than as they aggravate the practical religious trouble. A solution of his problem, therefore, was possible in only one way, viz. by his seeing God (cf. ch. Job 42:5 )—for to see God is to see Him in peace and reconciliation. And it is to grasp the assurance of this that Job’s heart now reaches forth its hand. my Redeemer liveth ] “Liveth” means more than is, exists . Job uses the word in opposition to himself—he dies but his redeemer lives after him. The term redeemer (Heb. gô’çl ) is frequently used of God as the deliverer of His people out of captivity, e.g. very often in Isaiah 40 seq . (ch. Isaiah 49:7 ; Isaiah 49:26 , Isaiah 54:5 ; Isaiah 54:8 ), and also as the deliverer of individuals from distress, Genesis 48:16 ; Psalm 19:14 ; Psalm 103:4 .

Among men the Goel was the nearest blood-relation, on whom it lay to perform certain offices in connexion with the deceased whose Goel he was, particularly to avenge his blood, if he had been unjustly slain ( Ruth 2:20 , &c.; Numbers 35:19 ). Job here names God his Goel. The passage stands in close relation with ch. Job 16:18-19 , where he names God his “witness” and “sponsor” or representative. It is probable, therefore, that there is an allusion to the Goel among men—Job has in God a Goel who liveth. This Goel will vindicate his rights against the wrong both of men and God ( Job 19:3; Job 19:7 ). At the same time this vindication is regarded less as an avenging of him, at least on others (though cf. Job 19:28-29 ), than as a manifestation of his innocence. This manifestation can only be made by God’s appearing and shewing the true relation in which Job stands to Him, and by Job’s seeing God. For his distress lay in God’s hiding His face from him, and his redemption must come through his again beholding God in peace. Thus the ideas of Goel and redeemer virtually coincide. he shall stand at the latter day ] To stand means to arise and appear, to come forward (as a witness, Deuteronomy 19:15 ; Psalm 37:12 ), or to interpose (as a judge, Psalm 12:5 ). The word day has no place here. The expression “the latter” means either last or later .