Commentary for Job 19:30

Job does not now reply to Bildad's hypothesis, preferring to wait until all three of his companions have completed their speeches in the second round. At this juncture he just complains bitterly at the pain their biting words are causing him; such scorn and insult (Psalms 119:22), Even had he said something improper, a person should not be held responsible for what he says when distressed.¹TB Baba Batra 16b He concludes that they have turned against him; that they have become his enemies and, as such, have just come to heap still more anguish on his distress (Lamentations 1:12), hounding him mercilessly. He leaves it to future generations to judge his case; they will surely exonerate him.
He also arraigns his companions before Heaven for having persecuted a disease stricken man like him, one who is anguished to the point of death. (Psalms 109:16) He tells of his distress and his troubles and warns them that they should fear God's retribution for the way they had deceived him, under the guise of love.²This book is as much about man as it is about God. Whatever God's involvement was or was not in all that had befallen Job, his family and his possessions, his companions show little sympathy for his present state. They offer all sorts of theologies to explain it but there is no succor or comfort in their rationalizations; at least they could have shown some pity. As Yeshayahu Leibowitz said of the book When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold S. Kushner, that if it is supposed to be an explanation, it fails; but if it is meant to be a comfort to the bereaved (נחום אבלים), which is a great Mitzvah, then the book has value.

Job’s Reply
will you grieve Heb. תגיון,an expression of grief (תוגה).

Job is grievously hurt by his companions’ insinuation that under the cloak of his righteousness he is really a very wicked person, his suffering being the proof of this, there being no suffering without sin according to them. Even if he was as wicked as they say, and even if, as they contend, his suffering is from God, its magnitude is out of all proportion to any sin he may have committed.

ten times There are ten chapters until here.

stay with me I am the one who receives blows for my error.

If indeed you are added upon me to my trouble. and prove against me my reproach You show and prove my reproach to my face.

I cry out concerning violence but I am not answered.

he has uprooted Heb. ויסע, an expression of uprooting.

they build their road Heb. ויסלו, an expression of a highway (מסלה).

became strange Heb. אך זרו, an expression of cruelty.

to the children of my body To those who I raised in my house as though they were my own children.

children despised me I was despised in the eyes of children, all the more so in the eyes of princes.

My bones cleaved because I am emaciated from thickness of flesh.

by the skin of my teeth All his flesh was afflicted with boils and worms except his gums.

Job calls upon his companions to show him the pity that God has not shown. They gain nothing from the withering of his flesh

Job asks that his story not be forgotten. He will yet be vindicated before the end of time

With an iron pen they should be inscribed in the rock, and afterwards they run lead over them to give the letters a black appearance, to make them recognizable. This is the practice of those who inscribe on stone. It cannot be explained to mean a lead pen because lead is soft in comparison with stone.

But I know that my Redeemer lives This “vav” refers to the above. You persecute me, but I know that my Redeemer lives to requite you, and He will endure and rise.

and the last on the earth, He will endure After all earth dwellers will perish, He will endure last.

And after my skin, they have cut into this Yet they do not pay heed to my Redeemer, but after the plague of my skin, they cut, strike, and pierce. This vexation and persecution that I mentioned, which is to me like one cutting into my skin, like (Isa. 10:34): “And the thickets of the forests shall be cut off (ונקף).”

Job maintains that the soul cannot live outside the body. Hence, since his body is beyond repair, what hope is there left to him? The assertion, made by his companions, that despite his physical decay he still has a soul within him, through which he can yet seek salvation, is a deceit; and let them beware, for the punishment for deceit is the sword.³Malbim draws a parallel between Job's words and the following passage from Exodus:
Do not cheat the stranger, nor oppress him; for you were yourselves strangers in the land of Egypt. Do not ill-treat any widow or orphan. Should you dare to ill-treat him, he will surely cry out unto Me. I will surely hear his cry. My anger will be aroused and I will kill you by the sword; and your wives will be widowed and your children fatherless. (Exodus 22: 21-23)
This is one of the few instances where the Torah spells out the punishment for a particular sin and specifies that it will be effected in this world.

and from my flesh I see judgments.

judgment Heb. אלוה, an expression of judgment and chastisements.

Shall you say, ‘Why should we persecute him?’ Like (Deut. 7:17), “Will you say in your heart,” in which [כי] is an expression of a question. That is to say, “Will you lay your heart to the matter to have pity and say, ‘Why should we persecute him?’”

and the root of the matter that is found in him—what is it? This favor will never enter your mind [to determine] the root of the matter for which he suffers with pains.

for the wrath For you are committing much iniquity that will bring about the sword.

in order that you know and understand the secret of the retribution that will come upon the wicked. Also, the mesorah is authoritative and שדין is written, as though it would say that there is justice (שיש דין) in the world, like (Jud. 5:7), “I, Deborah, arose (שַׁקַמְתִּי), [like שֶׁקַמְתִּי].” I saw this in Tanchuma (Mishpatim 3)