Bible Strands
Job 19:14
My kinsmen have failed me, and my friends have forgotten me.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Job speaks to his three companions and any listener during his prolonged affliction, positioned between his statement that God removed his brothers and his observation that his household staff now treat him as a stranger (Job 19:13, 15).
The words — The Hebrew חָדְלוּ (cha.de.Lu) literally means "they have ceased" or "failed," and שְׁכֵחֽוּ (she.khe.Chu) means "they have forgotten," directly describing the abandonment of his קְרוֹבָי (kindred) and מְיֻדָּעַי (acquaintances).
The thread — This pattern of relational abandonment by close associates runs through Psalms 38:11, where friends shun the sufferer, and Psalms 55:12, which distinguishes the pain of betrayal from ordinary enemy hostility.
Why it lands — The text first records the factual withdrawal of every expected social bond before any inference about divine silence, requiring the reader to acknowledge that isolation is the baseline condition of the suffering described.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
Cross-references
- Psalms 38:11 My beloved and friends shun my disease, and my kinsmen stand at a distance.
- 2 Samuel 16:23 Now in those days the advice of Ahithophel was like the consultation of the word of God. Such was the regard that both David and Absalom had for Ahithophel’s advice.
- Psalms 55:12 For it is not an enemy who insults me; that I could endure. It is not a foe who rises against me; from him I could hide.
- Proverbs 18:24 A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who stays closer than a brother.
- Jeremiah 20:10 For I have heard the whispering of many: “Terror is on every side! Report him; let us report him!” All my trusted friends watch for my fall: “Perhaps he will be deceived so that we may prevail against him and take our vengeance upon him.”
- Micah 7:5 Do not rely on a friend; do not trust in a companion. Seal the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms.
- Matthew 10:21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rise against their parents and have them put to death.
- John 13:18 I am not speaking about all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the Scripture: ‘The one who shares My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’