to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
persecute
נִּרְדָּףnir.dof-
H7291
to run after (usually with hostile intent · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common plural
root
וְשֹׁ֥רֶשׁve.Sho.resh
H8328
a root (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
matter
דָּ֝בָ֗רda.Var
H1697
a word · noun, common masculine singular absolute
found
נִמְצָאnim.tza'-
H4672
properly · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 19:22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
1 Kings 14:13 And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good t…
Psalms 69:26 For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 19:23–end
In all the conferences between Job and his friends we do not find any more weighty and considerable lines than these; would one have expected it? Here is much both of Christ and heaven in these verses: and he that said such things as these declared plainly that he sought the better country, that is, the heavenly; as the patriarchs of that age did, Heb 11:14. We have here Job's creed, or confession of faith. His belief in God the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, and the principles of natural religion, he had often professed: but here we find him no stranger to revealed religion; though the revelation of the promised Seed, and the promised inheritance, was then discerned only li…
Rather, "ye will then (when the Vindicator cometh) say, Why," &c.
root . . . in me--The root of pious integrity, which was the matter at issue, whether it could be in one so afflicted, is found in me. UMBREIT, with many manuscripts and versions, reads "in him." "Or how found we in him ground of contention."
John Gill on Job 19:28
But ye should say,.... Here Job directs his friends what use they should make of this confession of his faith; they should upon this say within themselves, and to one another,
why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me? Why should we pursue him with hard words, and load him with censures and reproaches, as if he was an hypocrite, when it appears, by what he says, that he has truth in the inward parts, the true grace of God is in him; that he is rooted in the love of God, and in the person of the Redeemer; that he has the Spirit of God in him, and the divine seed which has taken root in him, and brings forth fruit: or that "the root of the word" (k) is in him; the wor…
26 And after my skin, thus torn to pieces,
And without my flesh shall I behold Eloah,
27 Whom I shall behold for my good,
And mine eyes shall see Him and no other -
My veins languish in my bosom.
28 Ye think: "How shall we persecute him?"
Since the root of the matter is found in me -
29 Therefore be ye afraid of the sword,
For wrath meeteth the transgressions of the sword,
That ye may know there is a judgment!
If we have correctly understood על־עפר,Job 19:25, we cannot in this speech find that the hope of a bodily recovery is expressed. In connection with this rendering, the oldest representative of which is Chrysostom, מבּשׂרי is translated either: free from my flesh = having become a ske…
The Church Fathers
"Perhaps you will say what accusation against him? It is in this sense that it is said to the spiritual ones: "Reflecting on yourself, for fear of being so tempted" (2). - We will find in him the principle of his speeches. For him it showed temerity.
Wherefore then do ye now say, Let us persecute him, and find out the root of the word against him? Fly therefore from the face of the sword, for the sword is an avenger of wickedness; and know that there is a judgment. For in the first sentence he reproved the deeds of the wicked, while in the following he made known the punishments proceeding from the Divine judgment, Thus he saith, Wherefore then do ye now say; Let us persecute him and find out the root of the word against him? Wicked persons, because they hear with wrong earnestness things well put forth, and seek to find in the tongue of the righteous an inlet for accusation, what else do they but 'seek the root of the word against him,' from which same they may take the commencement of speaking, and in the accusing of him expand the branches of evil talkativeness? But when the holy man meets with such things at the hands of wicked men, it is not against them but rather for them that he feels sorrow, and reproves the things wickedly harboured in the heart, and shews them evil for them to escape, saying, Fly therefore from the face of the sword; for the sword is the avenger of wickedness; and know that there is a judgment. Everyone that does wicked things, even herein, that he is too indifferent to fear this, does not know of there being a judgment of God. For if he did know that this was a thing to be feared, he would never do things that are destined to be punished in it. For there are very many who know that there is a final Judgment as far as the words go, but by acting wickedly they bear witness that they do not know it. Since whereas he does not dread this as he ought, he does not yet know with what a tempest of terror it will come. For if he had been taught to estimate the weight of the dreadful scrutiny, surely in fearing he would guard against the day of wrath. Moreover, 'to fly from the face of the sword,' is to propitiate the sentence of the strict visitation before it appears. For the terribleness of the Judge cannot be avoided saving before the Judgment. Now He is not discerned, but is appeased by prayers. But when He shall sit on that dreadful inquest, He is both able to be seen and not able any longer to be propitiated; in that the doings of the wicked which He bore long while in silence, He shall pay back all of them together in wrath. Whence it is necessary to fear the Judge now, while…
I will see him for myself: The thought is the same as the psalmist’s in “when I awake” (Ps 17:15). For Job, this hope could only be fulfilled in seeing God at the end of time (Matt 5:8; 1 Cor 13:12; 1 Jn 3:2; Rev 1:7) in transformed flesh (1 Cor 15:43-53; Phil 3:21).
Rashi on Job 19:28
Shall you say, ‘Why should we persecute him?’ Like (Deut. 7:17), “Will you say in your heart,” in which [כי] is an expression of a question. That is to say, “Will you lay your heart to the matter to have pity and say, ‘Why should we persecute him?’”
and the root of the matter that is found in him—what is it? This favor will never enter your mind [to determine] the root of the matter for which he suffers with pains.
