Job 19:13-14

Job’s Forsaken State

19:13 “He has put my relatives ¹  far from me;

my acquaintances only ²  turn away from me.

19:14 My kinsmen have failed me;

my friends ³  have forgotten me. ⁴ 

Psalms 88:8

88:8 You cause those who know me to keep their distance;

you make me an appalling sight to them.

I am trapped and cannot get free. ⁵ 

Proverbs 19:7

19:7 All the relatives ⁶  of a poor person hate him; ⁷ 

how much more do his friends avoid him –

he pursues them ⁸  with words, but they do not respond. ⁹ 

Matthew 26:56

26:56 But this has happened so that ¹⁰  the scriptures of the prophets would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.

[19:13]  ¹ tn Heb “brothers.”

[19:13]  ² tn The LXX apparently took אַךְ־זָרוּ (’akh, “even, only,” and zaru, “they turn away”) together as if it was the verb אַכְזָרוּ (’akhzaru, “they have become cruel,” as in 20:21). But the grammar in the line would be difficult with this. Moreover, the word is most likely from זוּר (zur, “to turn away”). See L. A. Snijders, “The Meaning of zar in the Old Testament,” OTS 10 (1964): 1-154 (especially p. 9).

[19:14]  ³ tn The Pual participle is used for those “known” to him, or with whom he is “familiar,” whereas קָרוֹב (qarov, “near”) is used for a relative.

[19:14]  ⁴ tn Many commentators add the first part of v. 15 to this verse, because it is too loaded and this is too short. That gives the reading “My kinsmen and my familiar friends have disappeared, they have forgotten me (15) the guests I entertained.” There is not much support for this, nor is there much reason for it.

[88:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “[I am] confined and I cannot go out.”

[19:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “brothers,” but not limited only to male siblings in this context.

[19:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “hate him.” The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) may be nuanced “reject” here (metonymy of effect, cf. CEV). The kind of “dislike” or “hatred” family members show to a poor relative is to have nothing to do with him (NIV “is shunned”). If relatives do this, how much more will the poor person’s friends do so.

[19:7]  ⁸ tn The direct object “them” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.

[19:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “not they.” The last line of the verse is problematic. The preceding two lines are loosely synonymous in their parallelism, but the third adds something like: “he pursues [them with] words, but they [do] not [respond].” Some simply say it is a corrupt remnant of a separate proverb and beyond restoration. The basic idea does make sense, though. The idea of his family and friends rejecting the poor person reveals how superficial they are, and how they make themselves scarce. Since they are far off, he has to look for them “with words” (adverbial accusative), that is, “send word” for help. But they “are nowhere to be found” (so NIV). The LXX reads “will not be delivered” in place of “not they” – clearly an attempt to make sense out of the cryptic phrase, and, in the process, showing evidence for that text.

[26:56]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “But so that”; the verb “has happened” is implied.