Job 19:6
in Job 19then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Know now that God hath subverted me in my cause, And hath compassed me with his net.
KJV
Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.
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This verse in Job 19
Commentary
9 notes on this verseKnow now at least that God hath afflicted me with no just judgment. O, how hard does the voice of the righteous man sound, suffering under the infliction of the rod! Which same, however, not pride, but grief gave vent to! Now he is not righteous, who gives up righteousness under sorrow; and blessed Job, because he had a meek spirit, did not sin even by a hard word.
This site's exposition
drawn His net around me
on Job 19:6-9
Job answers Bildad's doctrine at 18:8 by naming the net's owner: "it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me". Barnes notes that Job's error is honest and profound. Job reads suffering as God's hostility because he cannot see the court of chapters 1 and 2.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"But alas! Since you magnify yourselves against me and insult me with reproach," he says, "know then that it is the Lord that has troubled me." What do these words mean? That it is necessary to have respect and fear? In my opinion, Job wants to suggest in this passage that if he was suffering so much, it was not because of his faults—in fact, if God strikes one, does one always suffer because of his faults? Not Job, and not many others—but in order to be tested and to achieve more victories.
The Medieval Church1 voice
After he begins with these things which concern the refutation of his friends, he goes on to pursue his chief proposition with the intention of showing what they were saying is false: that present adversities always arise because of past sins. Immediately at the beginning …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Three things he would have them consider:-- (1.) That his trouble was very great. He was overthrown, and could not help himself, enclosed as in a net, and could not get out. (2.) That God was the author of it, and that, in it, he fought against him: "It was his hand that overthrew me; it is in his net that I am enclosed; and therefore you need not appear against me thus.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
Know now that God hath overthrown me,.... He would have them take notice that all his afflictions were from the hand of God; and therefore should take care to what they imputed any acts of his, whose ways are unsearchable, and the reasons of them not to be found out; and therefore, if a wrong construction should be put upon them, which may be easily done by weak sighted men, it must be displeasing to him.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Know now that God hath overthrown me - The matter is between him and me, and he has not commissioned you to add reproaches to his chastisements. And hath compassed me with his net - There may be an allusion here to the different modes of hunting which have been already referred to in the preceding chapter.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
compassed . . . net--alluding to Bildad's words (Job 18:8). Know, that it is not that I as a wicked man have been caught in my "own net"; it is God who has compassed me in His--why, I know not.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Know now that God - Understand the case; and in order that they might, he goes into an extended description of the calamities which God had brought upon him. He wished them to be “fully” apprised of all that he had suffered at the hand of God. Hath overthrown me - The word used here (עות ‛âvath) means to bend, to make crooked or curved; then to distort, prevert: them to overturn, to destroy; Isa 24:1; Lam 3:9. The meaning here is, that he had been in a state of prosperity, but that God had completely “reversed” everything. And hath compassed me with his net - Has sprung his net upon me as a hunter does, and I am caught. Perhaps there may be an allusion here to what Bildad said in Job 18:8 ff, that the wicked would be taken in his own snares. Instead of that, Job says that “God” had sprung the snare upon him - for reasons which he could not understand, but in such a manner as should move the compassion of his friends.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery 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.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| דְּֽעוּ־ | deu- | know | H3045 → | 945 times |
| אֵ֭פוֹ | ʾefo | then | H645 → | 15 times |
| כִּי־ | ki- | that | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| אֱל֣וֹהַּ | ʾeloah | God | H433 → | 57 times |
| עִוְּתָ֑נִי | ʾivetani | he has wronged me | H5791 → | 11 times |
| וּ֝מְצוּד֗וֹ | umetzudo | and net his | H4685 → | |
| עָלַ֥י | ʾalai | over me | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| הִקִּֽיף׃ | hikif | he has closed | H5362 → | 19 times |
דְּֽעוּ־know
deu-H3045 →945 times
אֵ֭פוֹthen
ʾefoH645 →15 times
כִּי־that
ki-H3588 →4482 times
אֱל֣וֹהַּGod
ʾeloahH433 →57 times
עִוְּתָ֑נִיhe has wronged me
ʾivetaniH5791 →11 times
וּ֝מְצוּד֗וֹand net his
umetzudoH4685 →
עָלַ֥יover me
ʾalaiH5921 →5755 times
הִקִּֽיף׃he has closed
hikifH5362 →19 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach 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
Job 7:20If I have sinned, what have I done to You, O watcher of mankind? Why have You made me Your target, so that I am a burden to You?
it leads to
- Lamentations 3:12
He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.
- Psalms 36:6
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains; Your judgments are like the deepest sea. O LORD, You preserve man and beast.
- Job 7:11–12
Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
- Job 3:24
I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.
- Lamentations 3:12
Through
Job 27:2“As surely as God lives, who has deprived me of justice—the Almighty, who has embittered my soul—
it leads to
- Job 34:5
For Job has declared, ‘I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice.
- Numbers 14:21
“Yet as surely as I live and as surely as the whole earth is filled with the glory of the LORD,
- 2 Kings 4:27
When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul…
- 2 Samuel 2:27
“As surely as God lives,” Joab replied, “if you had not spoken up, the troops would have continued pursuing their brothers until morning.”
- Job 34:5
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
About Job
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIV; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 19:3B-6A; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.