I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
Job has lost his wealth, his children and his health. In this reply to Bildad he counts up everyone who has left him — brothers, friends, relatives, household staff, even his wife. Verse 16 catches one small, sharp detail in that list: the master calls his own servant, gets silence, and has to beg.
The servant who will not answer
The verse turns on a reversal of roles. Job must beg the man who should come at a word, and his own staff treat him as an outsider.
Samuel RidoutTurning to man, Job sees the same injustice, which by implication comes from God. It is His troops who besiege him. His own brothers have forsaken him; his relatives have forgotten him. His own slaves look on him as a stranger, and even to his own servant he has to keep pleading before he will be heard. Worst of all, the wife he loves recoils from the foul smell of his body. Boys mock him, friends detest him.
Why they pulled away
Job's illness made him hard to be near. His own household drew back from him, not just the servants.
Leslie M. GrantAt least Job's three friends did sit with him and listened to him. But his servants would not even answer when he called. His breath was offensive to his wife, which was no doubt literally true. His wife was clearly no help to him in his sufferings (vv. 16-17)... We can understand what children would feel on seeing him sitting in an ash heap covered with sores. Yet Job felt them shrinking back from him, in contrast to their former respect.
Job traces the silence to God
Job does not blame the servant. He traces every loss to one hand — and says that hand would not answer him either.
William KellyIt was He who refused to listen to Job's cry and gave no ear to his appeals. And not only this: it was He who embittered his social circle and the privacy of home. He removed his brothers, estranged his acquaintances, made his relatives fail and his close friends forget him. His guests and his maid counted him a stranger, an alien. Job called his servant in vain, though he begged him humbly. Job was an object of disgust to his wife, even when he was longing after those nearest to him.
He says it himself
The friends never had to drag this admission out of Job. He names each loss himself, and says openly that God is behind it.
William KellyDid they say that God was against Job? "God has overthrown me," he acknowledges... He himself points to his universal desertion, not they. His wife, his brothers, his servants, his household all left him. Even youngsters treated him with contempt. Those who once respected him had now all deserted him.
Kelly weighs what that boldness was worth:
William KellyAnd this, as far as it goes, could not have been without real faith, though it was far below the meek submission of our blessed Lord.
The call that is answered
A few verses later, the man nobody will answer speaks of a Redeemer who lives.
Samuel RidoutThen, in the middle of these laments, he speaks magnificent words of faith. He says, "I know that my Redeemer lives." But this was the very God whom he had just been charging with injustice! How good it is to see Job's faith in all this turmoil turning to the very One he was speaking against! Truly these — not his own protests of innocence — are the words worth carving into lasting rock.
What Job still waited for is already done:
Samuel RidoutHere, then, we have a glimpse of the blessed Lord whom we know. He is not One who is yet to arise. He has already triumphed over death and the grave. He has vindicated us — not from attacks on some imagined righteousness of ours, but from sins of the deepest kind. He has enabled us to say, "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?"
Summary
- Called. The master of the house calls one servant and gets silence. He must beg for an answer, while his own staff treat him as a stranger.
- Repelled. His illness drove people back. His breath sickened his wife, and children shrank from the man on the ash heap.
- Attributed. Job does not stop at the servant. He says God Himself refused to hear his cry and embittered even the privacy of his home.
- Confessed. Job names every deserter himself; his accusers never had to force it out of him. That honesty shows real faith, though it falls short of Christ's submission.
- Answered. The lips that got no answer say, "I know that my Redeemer lives." His faith turns to the very One he had been accusing. Those are the words worth carving in rock.