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"Oh for some umpire over both of us, who might decide our case."
The `Daysman' would have been understood at the time the A.V. was being
translated. He was a lawyer who attended court, and was at the disposal of any litigant
who needed advice or arbitration. The Hebrew word yakach translated "Daysman" is
found in Job 17 times. It is used in Isa. 1: 18 "Come now, and let us reason together".
Later in Job, after he had realized that he had a Kinsman-Redeemer, he said, using this
same word:
"Will He plead against me with His great power? No: but He would put strength in
me (there is no word for `strength' in the original, Moffatt renders it, `No, He would
listen to me'). There the righteous might dispute with Him; so should I be delivered
for ever from my Judge" (Job 23: 6, 7).
No.2.
The Witness of the Old Testament.
pp. 41 - 47
We have gone to some length in the endeavour to impress upon the reader the extreme
need felt by Job for a Mediator Who could represent both God and man. Later in the
book Elihu steps forward and says to Job:
"If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up. Behold, I am
according to thy wish IN GOD'S STEAD: I also am formed out of the clay. Behold, my
terror shall not make thee afraid" (Job 33: 5-7).
While Elihu was only a type or foreshadowing of the one Mediator between God and
man, the Man Christ Jesus, he does lead Job on into fuller light, as we shall see when
examining Job 33: 23-25, but we must return to the nineteenth chapter, and see how
what we have learned bears upon the title `Redeemer' there introduced. In a simpler
society than our own, where the police were unknown and tribal law was ascendant; a
man in trouble could call upon his next of kin for succour, and that is what Job had in
mind when he said "I know that my Redeemer liveth".
First let me tabulate the principle duties of the Kinsman-Redeemer.
(1)
To recover property alienated or forfeited, by sale or mortgage (Lev. 25: 25).
(2)
To deliver a kinsman taken into captivity, or sold into bondage (Gen. 14: 4-16).
(3)
To avenge the death of a murdered kinsman (Numb. 35: 12).
(4)
To marry the widow of a deceased brother who was childless (Deut. 25: 5-10
and Ruth).
In Job 19: 7 Job says "I cry out of wrong" but the margin says "violence". Indeed,
Job was calling out for his kinsman in view of possible murder, and Moffatt has seen this,
rendering the verse: