Bible Strands
Job 19:22
Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks to his three friends while enduring severe physical affliction and social abandonment. He confronts them at the height of his lament, questioning the intensity of their hostility.
The words — תִרְדְּפֻנִי (tirdephuni) means "you are persecuting me," directly linked to כְמוֹ־אֵל (kemo-El), "like God." The closing clause תִשְׂבְּעוּ מִבְּשָׂרִי (tisbe'u mi-besarî) literally asks "will you not be satisfied with my flesh?"
The thread — The pattern of relentless pursuit and divine striking appears in Job 2:5, where God is instructed to strike Job's flesh and bones, and in Job 10:16, where God is described as hunting like a lion. The connection between being pursued and being wounded by God also surfaces in Psalm 69:26.
Why it lands — The text requires a reader to acknowledge how human criticism can mirror perceived divine severity. It demands an honest assessment of whether suffering invites compassion or merely fuels further condemnation.
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
Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
Cross-references
- Psalms 69:26 For they persecute the one You struck and recount the pain of those You wounded.
- Job 2:5 But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”
- Job 10:16 Should I hold my head high, You would hunt me like a lion, and again display Your power against me.
- Job 13:25 Would You frighten a windblown leaf? Would You chase after dry chaff?
- Job 16:11 God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.
- Job 31:31 if the men of my house have not said, ‘Who is there who has not had his fill?’—
- Isaiah 51:23 I will place it in the hands of your tormentors, who told you: ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you,’ so that you made your back like the ground, like a street to be traversed.”
- Micah 3:3 You eat the flesh of my people after stripping off their skin and breaking their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron.”
- Job 16:13 His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.