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Job 19:22

in Job 19

Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Why do ye persecute me as God, And are not satisfied with my flesh?

KJV

Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

This verse in Job 19

Commentary

12 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Why do ye persecute me as God - Are not the afflictions which God sends enough? Do ye not see that I have as much as I can bear? When the papists were burning Dr. Taylor at Oxford, while wrapped in the flames, one of the true sons of the Church took a stick out of the faggots, and threw it at his head, and split open his face. To whom he calmly said, Man, why this wrong? Do not I suffer enough?

This site's exposition

the skin of my teeth

on Job 19:20-22

"I have escaped by the skin of my teeth" gave the proverb. Clarke and Delitzsch give two readings: escape with nothing, or the bare gums the disease has left. The cry "Have pity on me, my friends, have pity" asks what he believes God withholds.

This site's exposition

never get enough of my flesh

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown observe that God's hand on a man gives no one leave to add to it, citing Zechariah 1:15. Wesley hears the friends persecute Job as if they had God's knowledge of his heart. To eat his flesh is to slander him.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Olympiodorus of Alexandria

COMMENTARY ON JOB 19:20-22 · Written before 600.

proposed

"Why do you persecute me as also the Lord does, and are not satisfied with my flesh? Why do you add your wrath to divine wrath without doing this according to God's will? Even though God punishes, he, nonetheless, wants to be good to us—and …

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Gregory the Dialogist

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIV · Written before 604.

proposed

Why do ye persecute me as God; and are filled with my flesh? It is not at variance with the style of piety that he tells that he is persecuted by God. For there is a good persecutor; as when the Lord says of Himself by the lips of the Prophet, Him that privily slandereth his neighbour, him did I persecute. But when any Saint is suffered to be stricken, he knows that he is undergoing persecution, sent against evil he has been guilty of, from the interior ordering.

A commentator

Thomas Aquinas

Commentary on Job · Written before 1274.

proposed

For he understood that he had been smitten by God. It does not seem fitting for a man to add affliction to someone who has been afflicted, and so he says, "Why do you persecute me like God?" as if to say: The persecution which …

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

As God - As if you had the same infinite knowledge which God hath, whereby you can search my heart and know my hypocrisy, and the same sovereign authority to say and do what you please with me. Not satisfied - Are like wolves or lions that are not contented with devouring the flesh of their prey, but also break their bones.
Why do ye persecute me as God,....
4 more voices on this verse

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Here is much both of Christ and heaven in these verses: and he that said such things as these declared plainly that he sought the better country, that is, the heavenly; as the patriarchs of that age did, Heb. xi. We have here Job's creed, or confession of faith.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

He comforts himself with the believing hopes of happiness in the other world, though he had so little comfort in this, making a very solemn confession of his faith, with a desire that it might be recorded as an evidence of his sincerity,

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

as God--has persecuted me. Prefiguring Jesus Christ (Ps 69:26). That God afflicts is no reason that man is to add to a sufferer's affliction (Zec 1:15). satisfied with my flesh--It is not enough that God afflicts my flesh literally (Job 19:20), but you must "eat my flesh" metaphorically (Ps 27:2); that is, utter the worst calumnies, as the phrase often means in Arabic.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

Why do ye persecute me as God? - As God has done. That is, without giving me any reason for it; accusing me of crimes without proof, and condeming me without mitigation. That there is here an improper reflection on God, will be apparent to all. It accords with what Job frequently expresses where he speaks of him as judging him severly, and is on of the instances which prove that he was not entirely perfect. And are not satisfied with my flesh - That is, are not contented that my “body” is subjected to inexpressible torment, and is wholly wasting away, but add to this the torment of the soul. Why is it not enough that my “body” is thus tormented without adding the severer tortures of the mind?

The words behind it

7 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • לָ֭מָּה<to> why?

    lamahH4100 →752 times

  • תִּרְדְּפֻ֣נִיare you persecuting me

    tirdefuniH7291 →143 times

  • כְמוֹ־like

    khemov-H3644 →143 times

  • אֵ֑לGod

    ʾelH410 →241 times

  • וּ֝מִבְּשָׂרִ֗יand from flesh my

    umibesariH1320 →270 times

  • לֹ֣אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • תִשְׂבָּֽעוּ׃are you satisfied?

    tisbauH7646 →97 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Psalms 69:26

    For they persecute the one You struck and recount the pain of those You wounded.

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 53:4

      Surely He took on our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken by God, struck down and afflicted.

    • Zechariah 1:15

      but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have added to the calamity.’

    • Mark 15:27–32

      Along with Jesus, they crucified two robbers, one on His right and one on His left.

    • Isaiah 53:10

      Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer; and when His soul is made a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days,…

    • 1 Thessalonians 2:15

      who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,

  • Through

    Job 2:5

    But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”

    it leads to

    • Job 1:11

      But stretch out Your hand and strike all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”

  • Through

    Micah 3:3

    You eat the flesh of my people after stripping off their skin and breaking their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron.”

    it leads to

    • Psalms 14:4

      Will the workers of iniquity never learn? They devour my people like bread; they refuse to call upon the LORD.

  • Through

    Isaiah 51:23

    I will place it in the hands of your tormentors, who told you: ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you,’ so that you made your back like the ground, like a street to…

    it leads to

    • Joshua 10:24

      When they had brought the kings to Joshua, he summoned all the men of Israel and said to the army commanders who had accompanied him, “Come here and put your feet on the necks…

Where this verse is studied

About Job

Job Hears of His Misfortunes, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Job Hears of His Misfortunes, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIV; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Olympiodorus of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON JOB 19:20-22 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.