ACERCA DE ESTE EPISODIO
19:13-20 Job a byword and outcast (17:6)
Job mentions some twelve groups here that have been alienated from him. The mention of these groups show how isolated and alienated Job has become. A common theme in psalms of lament is how the writer or speaker has been isolated from family and friends (Ps. 31:11; 38:11; 41:9; 55:12-14; 69:8; 88:8, 18).
19:15 Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger- The one who dwells in his house, gar, would refer not to blood relatives but to outsiders taken in by the good will of the homeowner. These were outside the bonds of family (Ex. 20:10, 12; Deut. 5:14; 16:11, 14). These would generally be bound by the strongest bonds of loyalty to his benefactor but not in this case. “The tables are now so completely turned that the very persons who owed their places in the household to Job now look upon him as outside the family.”[1]
I am a foreigner in their sight- The terms stranger (from the first line) and foreigner are used in parallelism. Often sojourners and maids were taken from foreign nations (Lev. 25:44-46; II Kings 5:2). Job has taken in people outside the nation and now these treat Job as if he were the stranger and foreigner.
19:16 I call to my servant, but he does not answer;- Job 9:14-16 uses the verb call (vs. 16) and answered (vs. 14, 15, 16).
The servant was the lowliest member of the community (though see Job’s respect for them in 31:13-15). The servant usually was very attentive to the master’s wants (Ps. 123:2; Luke 17:7-10). Just as God did not answer in vs. 7 so the servant does not answer. Job gets no answer from God, his friends, or even his servants, he is “a man without an answer.”[2]
I have to implore him with my mouth- The word implore is the word translated pity in vs. 21. The proper of order of things is not that the master begs the servant but even after this, the servant still does not properly respond. Job’s world has truly been turned upside down.
19:13 He has removed my brothers far from me,- In Ps. 69:8 David was estranged from his brothers. This word far from me, rachaq, is also used begging God not to be far away (Ps. 22:11, 19; 35:22; 38:21; 71:12). God is the One driving the wedge between Job and those closest to him. “The whole sorry catalogue of Job’s losses of human intimacy is laid at God’s door.”[2]
Job experiences what many sufferers, even innocent sufferers experience, though their friends may be many in times of blessing, they are often few in times of suffering. In suffering the sufferer is often left to fend for himself.
And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me- No friend with words to comfort nor hand to help was there for Job.
19:13-20 Job being forsaken by his closest associates foreshadows the greatest innocent sufferer of all who was forsaken by those closest to Him. His brothers did not believe in Him (John 7:5). His own family sought to take custody of Him thinking He has lost His senses (Mk. 3:20-21). Jesus was betrayed by Judas, one of the twelve (Matt. 26:14-16; 21-25, 47-50). His most outspoken follower Peter denied even knowing Him (Matt. 26:69-75). All the disciples forsook Him and fled at His arrest (Matt. 26:31, 56), including the youngest and strongest (Mk. 14:51-52). He came to His own and His own did not receive Him (John 1:12). The servants in God’s house rejected Him and He was viewed as a stranger in His own house (Matt. 21:12-17, 23-27).
