God Has Wronged Me

Job’s response to Bildad’s second speech alternates between recrimination against his friends’ lack of compassion and lament over the divine attack he is experiencing. The friends attack and torment Job because they are convinced he is at fault (19:4, 28). Job continues to claim his innocence and to call the friends to compassion and mutual support (19:21–22). He concludes with a warning that if the friends continue to align themselves with God’s unwarranted attack on Job, they might find themselves the focus of a similar inexplicable outpouring of divine judgment (19:28–29).

19:1–2  The friends, in their haste to justify God and thus to firm up their shaky worldview, torment . . . and crush Job in hopes of forcing an admission of sin from his lips. Their hopes are in vain…