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"I cry out `murder'!--there is no reply;
I call for help, and get no justice . . . . .
My clansmen have abandoned me,
My friends are all estranged,
My kinsmen will not own me, and my guests ignore me . . . . .
Still, I know One to champion me at last . . . . .
My heart is pinning as I yearn to see him on my side,
see Him ESTRANGED no longer" (Job 19: 7, 13, 14, 25, 27).
Job warns his failing friends, "Be ye afraid of the sword" (Job 19: 29), for the
Kinsman-Redeemer was also The Avenger of blood.
In chapter 14: we traveled with Job on his quest, and read:
"If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till
my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee: Thou wilt have a desire to the
work of Thine hands" (Job 14: 14, 15).
The need for the Kinsman-Redeemer Who should act as the Mediator is hinted at in
the four occurrences of the word that means "to estrange".
"Mine acquaintances are verily estranged from me . . . . .
They that dwell in my house . . . . . count me for a stranger . . . . .
My breath is strange to my wife . . . . .
Mine eyes shall behold and NOT A STRANGER' (Job 19: 13, 15, 17, 27).
The words "and not another", margin Heb. "a stranger", carry the thought on from the
failing kinsman to the Lord Himself.
We have made a big detour from our theme, Resurrection. The reader may wonder
how the text should be read in verse 26 "and though after my skin", and in the margin,
"After I shall awake". The R.V. ignores this alternative, and so do nearly all
commentators.
We believe nevertheless that the margin in the A.V. contains the true record of the
words of Job, and although it may seem a little like presumption on our part to express a
very definite opinion, in view of the silence of so many scholars since the A.V. was first
presented, we believe we have discovered a way of demonstrating its truth that will
appeal to all readers. The words "my skin" are treated in the A.V. margin as though they
were a part of the verb "to awake" and both of these words are expressed by the same
letters in the Hebrew, ayin, vav and resh, written in English ur. Unaided reason fails to
provide a solution, but a conviction that all Scripture is inspired, led us to collect every
occurrence of the verb "to awake" in Job. The first occurrence of this verb is Job 3: 8,
where we read:
"Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning."
The margin of the A.V. and the text of the R.V. read instead of "their mourning" the
word "leviathan". Barnes believes that here is a reference to necromancy and the calling
up for fierce monsters "from the vast deep". It is not our present concern to explore this