“He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
Job has just blamed God for overthrowing him and stripping his honour; now he turns to the emptiness around him, starting with his own family. The hard question is whose hand did it — Job says God's, and commentators do not all agree.
God Named as the Cause
Job does not blame bad luck or even his enemies. He traces every loss back to God, down to the coldness of his own relatives. One writer breaks in to mark the place where Job went wrong.
William Kelly"He has also kindled His wrath against me…" — there he was wrong — "and He counts me to Him as one of His enemies. His troops come together and raise up their way against me, and encamp around my tent. He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me." You know what that is to the heart if you have ever tasted it. "My relatives have failed me, and my close friends" — he now gets closer — "have forgotten me."
Whose Hand Moved Them
Commentators differ here. Kelly marks only the words about God's wrath as wrong. Another writer asks a sharper question: who moved these people away from Job?
Leslie M. GrantBut Job counted them as God's troops come together, "building roads" against him. Of course Job's guess was wrong. God did not move these people against him, though no doubt Satan did so. Job's brothers had removed themselves from him, and Job blamed God for this. His acquaintances, relatives and close friends had distanced themselves from him.
The Circle Widens
Verse 13 opens a list that keeps closing in: brothers, relatives, servants, his wife, then boys in the street. One writer follows it to the end, where the worst loss of all appears.
Samuel RidoutHis own brothers have forsaken him; his relatives have forgotten him. His very slaves look on him as a stranger. Even to his own servant he must repeat his appeal again and again before the man will listen. Worst of all, the wife of his heart recoils from the foul smell of his body. Boys mock him, friends detest him… It is a dreadful picture of a horrid disease. It is unspeakably sad when we remember that he could not turn to God for comfort.
Three Who Did Not Leave
One detail is easy to miss. The three who failed as comforters were the only ones who came. Their words fell short; their presence did not.
J. G. BellettEliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar were friends and brothers indeed, though they proved to be only "miserable comforters." They came to Job when all had deserted him… They were true-hearted friends, who said they would go and comfort their suffering brother. And they did go; and they sat with him in his place of ashes and broken pottery for seven days.
The Same Complaint in the Psalms
The same complaint appears again in the Psalms. One writer hears the voice of Christ there, left alone by God's own hand.
A. PridhamWith a heart supremely able to receive love as well as to give it, He must be alone. God's hand divided Him from every human kindness: "You have put my acquaintance far from me"… "Lover and friend you have put far from me." While His enemies surrounded Him like a flood, He was without a single comforter. The desertion of His friends was a portion of the cup prepared for Him.
Faith Rises Out of the Ruin
A few verses later comes Job's most famous line. What gives it weight is the place he spoke it from.
William Kelly"Oh that my words were written… Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives." Here we come to the very clear confession of his faith… It was beautiful too at such a time. He was in the deepest desolation and distress. Not one friend was left among men, and God Himself was striking him.
Summary
- Stripped. Job loses his brothers and his friends. The desertion starts with family and spreads to relatives, servants, wife and children.
- Blamed. He lays every one of these losses at God's door. Commentators differ: was he reading God's hand rightly, or guessing wrong while Satan moved the people?
- Alone. The worst of it is not the disease or the emptied house, but that in it he could find no comfort from God.
- Visited. Three friends still came and sat with him seven days — poor comforters, yet the only ones who came.
- Anticipated. The same complaint returns in the Psalms as Christ's own. Being cut off from every human kindness was part of the cup He drank. Out of a desolation like this, Job still said, "I know that my Redeemer lives."