Job 19:7
in Job 19Though I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry for help, but there is no justice.
KJV
Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
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This verse in Job 19
Commentary
10 notes on this verse"I will cry out, and there is nowhere judgment; I still contend." This is as if Job had said, "I cried out like an athlete in the stadium, but my judgment is nowhere there. Indeed, I still fight. But if I do not bring my fight to a close, I will not get my crown." We actually say these things lest we accuse God of the fact that Job suffered such misfortunes and there was judgment for him nowhere.
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.
This site's exposition
I get no response
Job cries out against violence and calls for help, and no answer comes from God or from his friends. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the missing justice both ways. Gregory holds that God delays His answer to purify the one who suffers.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Cure can be found in adversities first through human aid in two ways. In one way in the deed itself, for example, when someone is violently oppressed by someone else and he receives aid from another. He rejects this saying, "Behold, I will cry aloud …
Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard; I cry aloud, but there is no one to Judge. Almighty God, knowing what has in it efficacy to prove our good, shuts His ears to hear the voice of persons mourning, that He may add to their advantage, that their life may be purified by punishment, that the tranquillity of rest which can no where be found here, may be sought for elsewhere. But there are some of the faithful even that know nothing of this grace of Providential ordering, in whose person too it is now said; Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard; I cry aloud, but there is no one to judge; for it is said, 'there is no one to judge,' when He veils His eyes to judge, in that beside Him 'there is not any to judge' our cause against our adversary. Nor yet is this very thing void of judgment, viz. that judgment is delayed; seeing that at the very time that blessed Job said this, both the merits of the holy man and the punishment of his adversary were increased: so then this very deferring of judgment is the act of a judge. But what God settles justly within is one thing, and what the soul bruised by scourges without seeks after is another.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Behold, I cry out of wrong,....
He complains of the tokens of God's displeasure which he was under, and which infused the wormwood and gall into the affliction and misery. How doleful are the accents of his complaints! " He hath kindled his wrath against me, which flames and terrifies me, which burns and pains me,"
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Behold, I cry out of wrong - Margin, or “violence.” The Hebrew word (חמס châmâs) means properly violence. The violence referred to is that which was brought upon him by God. It is, indeed, harsh language; but it is not quite sure that he means to complain of God for doing him injustice. God had dealt with him in a severe or violent manner, is the meaning, and he had cried unto him for relief, but had cried in vain. No judgment - No justice.
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
wrong--violence: brought on him by God. no judgment--God will not remove my calamities, and so vindicate my just cause; and my friends will not do justice to my past character.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
I cry out of wrong - I complain of violence and of injustice; but no one comes to my help.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֵ֤ן | hen | there! | H2005 → | 316 times |
| אֶצְעַ֣ק | ʾetzak | I cry out | H6817 → | |
| חָ֭מָס | chamos | violence | H2555 → | |
| וְלֹ֣א | velo' | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| אֵעָנֶ֑ה | ʾeaneh | I am answered | H6030 → | 331 times |
| אֲ֝שַׁוַּ֗ע | ʾashava' | I cry for help | H7768 → | 21 times |
| וְאֵ֣ין | veein | and there not | H369 → | 789 times |
| מִשְׁפָּֽט׃ | mishpat | [is] justice | H4941 → | 422 times |
הֵ֤ןthere!
henH2005 →316 times
אֶצְעַ֣קI cry out
ʾetzakH6817 →
חָ֭מָסviolence
chamosH2555 →
וְלֹ֣אand not
velo'H3808 →5168 times
אֵעָנֶ֑הI am answered
ʾeanehH6030 →331 times
אֲ֝שַׁוַּ֗עI cry for help
ʾashava'H7768 →21 times
וְאֵ֣יןand there not
veeinH369 →789 times
מִשְׁפָּֽט׃[is] justice
mishpatH4941 →422 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
Lamentations 3:8Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.
it leads to
- Psalms 22:2
I cry out by day, O my God, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Job 30:20
I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.
- Psalms 22:2
Through
Job 34:5For Job has declared, ‘I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice.
it leads to
- Job 27:2
“As surely as God lives, who has deprived me of justice—the Almighty, who has embittered my soul—
- Job 33:9
‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, with no iniquity in me.
- Job 16:17
yet my hands are free of violence and my prayer is pure.
- Job 32:1
So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.
- Job 27:2
Through
Job 30:20I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.
it leads to
- Psalms 80:4–5
O LORD God of Hosts, how long will Your anger smolder against the prayers of Your people?
- Lamentations 3:8
Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.
- Psalms 80:4–5
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
About Job
This page draws on 10 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; 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); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, FRAGMENTS ON JOB 13.15, 29 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.