Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 19:3
These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed [that] ye make yourselves strange to me.
3. Job 19:23-27. Hopeless in the present he turns his eye to the future. He desires that his protest of innocence might find indelible record in the rock, that the generations to come might read it. Yet how small a thing that would be to him, whose chief sorrow lay in the alienation of God from his spirit. He shall have more. He knows that God shall yet appear to vindicate him, and that he shall see Him with his eyes in peace.
Third, Job 19:28-29. Finally he adds a brief threat to his friends.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
3. Ten times is a round number for often, Gen 31:7; Num 14:22.
make yourselves strange to me ] An expression of uncertain meaning, as the word does not occur again, unless, as some suppose, it be found in Isa 3:9. The meaning may be, ye wrong me, the root having some resemblance to an Arabic verb rendered by Lane “to wrong,” also “to be persistent in contention.” Ew., ye are unfeeling towards me.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
These ten times – Many times; the word ten being used as we often say, ten a dozen or twenty, to denote many; see Gen 31:7, And your father hath changed my wages ten times. Lev 26:26, and when I have broken your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread, in one oven; compare Num 14:22; Neh 4:6.
You are not ashamed that you make yourselves strange to me – Margin, harden yourselves strange to me. Margin, harden yourselves against me. Gesenius, and after him Noyes, renders this, Shameless ye stun me. Wemyss, Are ye not ashamed to treat me thus cruelly? The word used here ( hakar) occurs no no where else, and hence, it is difficult to determine its meaning. The Vulgate renders it, oppressing me. The Septuagint, and you are not ashamed to press upon me. – epikeisthe moi. Schultens has gone into an extended examination of its meaning, and supposes that the primary idea is that of being stiff, or rigid. The word in Arabic, he says, means to be stupid with wonder. It is applied, he supposes, to those who are stiff or rigid with stupor; and then to those who have a stony heart and an iron an iron fore-head – and who can look on the suffering without feeling or compassion. This sense accords well with the connection here. Gesenius, however, supposes that the primary idea is that of beating or pounding; and hence, of stunning by repeated blows. In either case the sense would be substantially the same – that of stunning. The idea given by our translators of making themselves strange was derived from the supposition that the word might be formed from nakar – to be strange, foreign; to estrange, alienate, etc. For a more full examination of the word, the reader may consult Schultens, or Rosenmuller in loco.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 3. These ten times] The exact arithmetical number is not to be regarded; ten times being put for many times, as we have already seen. See particularly Clarke’s note on “Ge 31:7“.
Ye make yourselves strange to me.] When I was in affluence and prosperity, ye were my intimates, and appeared to rejoice in my happiness; but now ye scarcely know me, or ye profess to consider me a wicked man because I am in adversity. Of this you had no suspicion when I was in prosperity! Circumstances change men’s minds.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
These ten times, i.e. many times. A certain number for an uncertain. So this phrase is oft used, as Gen 31:7; Num 14:22, &c.
That ye make yourselves strange to me; that you carry yourselves like strangers to me, and are not concerned nor affected with my calamities, and condemn me as if you had never known my former piety and integrity.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. Theseprefixed emphaticallyto numbers (Ge 27:36).
tenthat is, often (Ge31:7).
make yourselvesstrangerather, “stun me” [GESENIUS].(See Margin for a different meaning [that is, “hardenyourselves against me”]).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
These ten times have ye reproached me,…. Referring not to ten sections or paragraphs, in which they had done it, as Jarchi; or to the five speeches his friends, in which their reproaches were doubled; or to Job’s words, and their answer, as Saadiah; for it does not denote an exact number of their reproaches, which Job was not so careful to count; but it signifies that he had been many times reproached by them; so Aben Ezra, and in which sense the phrase is often used, see Ge 31:7; it is the lot of good men in all ages to be reproached by carnal and profane sinners, on account of religion, and for righteousness’ sake, as Christians are for the sake of Christ and his Gospel; and which Moses esteemed greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt; but to be reproached by friends, and that as an hypocrite and a wicked man, as Job was, must be very cutting; and this being often repeated, as it was an aggravation of the sin of his friends, so likewise of his affliction and patience:
ye are not ashamed, [so that] ye make yourselves strange to me; they looked shy at him; would not be free and friendly with him, but carried it strange to him, and seemed to have their affections alienated from him. There should not be a strangeness in good men one to another, since they are not aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, to the grace of God, and communion with him; since they are fellow citizens, and of the household of God; belong to the same city, share in the same privileges, are of the same family, children of the same father, and brethren one of another, members of the same body, heirs of the same grace and glory, and are to dwell together in heaven to all eternity; wherefore they should not make themselves strange to each other, but should speak often, kindly, and affectionately, one to another, and freely converse together about spiritual things; should pray with one another, and build up each other on their most holy faith, and by love serve one another, and do all good offices mutually that lie in their power, and bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law Christ: but, instead of this, Job’s friends would scarcely look at him, much less speak one kind word to him; yea, they “hardened [themselves] against” him, as some e render the word; had no compassion on him or pity for him in his distressed circumstances, which their relation to him obliged unto, and was due unto him on the score of friendship; nay, they “mocked” at him, which is the sense of the word, according to Ben Gersom f; and of this he had complained before, Job 12:4; and with some g it has the signification of impudence and audaciousness, from the sense of the word in the Arabic language, see Isa 3:9; as if they behaved towards him in a very impudent manner: or, though they “knew” him, as the Targum paraphrases it, yet they were “not ashamed” to reproach him; though they knew that he was a man that feared God; they knew his character and conversation before his all afflictions came on, and yet traduced him as an hypocrite and a wicked man. Whatever is sinful, men should be ashamed of, and will be sooner or later; not to be ashamed thereof is an argument of great hardness and impenitence; and among other things it becomes saints to be ashamed of their making themselves strange to one another. Some render it interrogatively h, “are ye not ashamed?” c. you may well be ashamed, if you are not this is put in order to make them ashamed.
e “indurastis facies vestras contra me”, Vatablus; so Broughton. f “Erubescitis subsannare me”, Pagninus. g Drusius; so Schultens. h So Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
3. Ten times Used for many times. Thus Maimonides: “He who profaneth the name of God in the presence of ten Israelites, behold, he profaneth it in the presence of many.” Or it may stand as the number of human possibility, says Delitzsch, from its being the number of fingers on the two hands of man.
Make yourselves strange to me Ill-treat me. (Dillmann.) Stun me. (Zockler.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 19:3. Ye are not ashamed Are ye not ashamed to be so very obstinate against me? Heath.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(3) These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me. (4) And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself. (5) If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach: (6) Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net. (7) Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
By ten times Job seems to have meant, their speaking was doubled by reason of the severity of it. And the poor man pleads what ought to have stopped their unkindness, his afflictions were the LORD’S afflictions, and when this is the case it is doubly cruel to heighten them.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 19:3 These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed [that] ye make yourselves strange to me.
Ver. 3. These ten times have ye reproached me ] i.e. Oftentimes. Herein Job endured a great fight of affliction, as the apostle styleth it, Heb 10:32-33 ; a manifold fight, as the word there signifieth. Cato was two and thirty times accused publicly, and as oft cleared and absolved. Basil was counted and called a heretic, even by those who, as it appeared afterwards, were of the same judgment with him, and whom he honoured as brethren. Dogs in a chase bark sometimes at their best friends, &c.
Ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
make yourselves strange to me: or, are insolent to me.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
ten times: Gen 31:7, Lev 26:26, Num 14:22, Neh 4:12, Dan 1:20
ye reproached: Job 4:6-11, Job 5:3, Job 5:4, Job 8:4-6, Job 11:3, Job 11:14, Job 15:4-6, Job 15:11, Job 15:12, Job 18:4-21
make yourselves strange to me: or, harden yourselves against me, Job 19:17, Gen 42:7, Psa 69:8
Reciprocal: Job 8:2 – How long Job 16:2 – heard Job 27:12 – altogether Psa 109:16 – persecuted Psa 119:22 – Remove Amo 1:3 – For Zec 8:23 – ten men
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
19:3 These {a} ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed [that] ye make yourselves strange to me.
(a) That is, many times, as in Neh 4:12.