Bible Strands
Job 19:5
If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my disgrace against me,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses his three friends during his prolonged suffering, directly confronting their ongoing accusations. He speaks at the moment they are actively using his condition to reinforce their theological claims against him.
The words — The Hebrew תַּגְדִּ֑ילוּ (tagdiilu) means "you will magnify yourselves," and חֶרְפָּתִּי (cherpati) translates to "my disgrace." The text states that the friends would take Job's humiliation and turn it into a tool for their own argument.
The thread — This pattern of adversaries exalting themselves over a distressed speaker appears in Psalms 35:26, Psalms 38:16, and Psalms 55:12. These passages similarly record lamenters noting how others use their downfall as grounds for gloating.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to notice how religious certainty can become a weapon when it ignores the speaker's actual experience. It asks the reader to test whether their engagement with another's suffering magnifies their own position or acknowledges divine sovereignty.
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
If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:
Cross-references
- Psalms 35:26 May those who gloat in my distress be ashamed and confounded; may those who exalt themselves over me be clothed in shame and reproach.
- Psalms 38:16 For I said, “Let them not gloat over me—those who taunt me when my foot slips.”
- 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.
- 1 Samuel 1:6 Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival would provoke her viciously to taunt her.
- Nehemiah 1:3 And they told me, “The remnant who survived the exile are there in the province, in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”
- Psalms 41:11 By this I know that You delight in me, for my enemy does not triumph over me.
- Isaiah 4:1 In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, “We will eat our own bread and provide our own clothes. Just let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!”
- Micah 7:8 Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.
- Zephaniah 2:10 This they shall have in return for their pride, for taunting and mocking the people of the LORD of Hosts.
- Zechariah 12:7 The LORD will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and of the people of Jerusalem may not be greater than that of Judah.