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Job 19:25
Hope in the Redeemer
Job 19:25
But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
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Why it is worth knowing
- “I know”: this is confident, personal conviction spoken from the depths of suffering
- “My Redeemer”: the kinsman-redeemer would vindicate and restore what was lost
- “Lives”: the Redeemer is not abstract but alive and active
- “In the end, he will stand upon the earth”: final vindication is coming
Where it sits: Job 19:23-27
“Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth. After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh, whom I, even I, will see on my side. My eyes will see, and not as a stranger. “My heart is consumed within me.
Hear the passage it sits in, sung word for word, on BibleDo's Job page.
Background
Job speaks these words in the middle of his suffering, when friends are accusing him and God seems absent. His cry (that his words be written and preserved) is answered: they are in Scripture. The word “Redeemer” (Hebrew: go’el) referred to the kinsman-redeemer who would buy back a relative from slavery or debt and vindicate the innocent. Job’s cry that his Redeemer lives has moved readers across centuries as a declaration of hope beyond death. The Hebrew of Job 19:26 is genuinely difficult and scholars differ on whether it envisions bodily resurrection, but the living Redeemer who “will stand upon the earth” is the center of Job’s hope. Handel immortalized this passage in his Messiah.