Job 16:18-22

3. He must be vindicated by a heavenly witness. (Job 16:18-22)

TEXT 16:18-22

18 O earth, cover not thou my blood,

And let my cry have no resting-place.

19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,

And he that voucheth for me is on high.

20 My Mends scoff at me:

But mine eye poureth out tears unto God,

21 That he would maintain the right of a man with God,

And of a son of man with his neighbor!

22 For when a few years are come,

I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

COMMENT 16:18-22

Job 16:18Shed blood cries out for vengeanceGenesis 4:10; Genesis 37:26; Isaiah 26:21; Ezekiel 24:8, hence the effort to hide it in the dust. Job desires that his blood remain uncovered as a protest and appeal to God for vindication. Dahood presents strong evidence that the A. V. rendering of resting place should be burial place. Here it is improbable that Job thinks of vindication while still alive. The passage (Job 16:18, Job 17:9) shows a very important development towards Job 19:24 ff.

Job 16:19Exegetically and theologically, it would be very difficult, even impossible, to deny that the witness in heaven is Job's mediator, redeemer (or VindicatorS. Terrien in Interpreter's Bible, Vol. Ill, 1025-1029), even though God is already Job's Accuser, Judge, and ExecutionerJob 9:33; Job 19:25; and Job 33:23-24.

Job 16:20My scorners (melisay) are my friends (Rowley, p. 150), so as I turn from them, I turn to God with tears streaming down my face. The above word for friend (re-'a) is used of Eliphaz, Bildad, and ZopharJob 2:11; Job 32:3; Job 42:10; and Jesus in John 15.

Job 16:21The one to whom Job turns is surely the same person as the witness of the preceding verse, and the vindicator of Job 9:33 and Job 19:25 (see bibliography on this verse). This is one of the most profound verses in all scripture. Job appeals to God, who had indicted him with cruel agony and as the God of his faith the object of Job's faith is also Lord of justice and righteousness, the one who will maintain the right (verb from which the word umpire is derived in Job 9:33). Now he pleads that God might present the case to himself. (Note the significance of the Incarnation in explaining the wonderful things here disclosed.) A son of man simply means a person, i.e., Job. Neighbor comes from the same word that is translated friend in Job 16:20. The neighbor is not God, as some suggest, rather a fellow human being.

Job 16:22Job here lapses into the thought of the inevitability and finality of death that has been expressed beforeJob 7:9 ff and Job 10:21.[189]

[189] M. Dahood, Biblica, 48, 1967, 429.