Job 19:28

Easy-to-Read Version

"Maybe you will say, ‘How can we push Job a little harder and make him realize that he is the source of his problems?'

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
If you say, “How will we pursue him,since the root of the problem lies with him?”

Hebrew Names Version
If you say, 'How we will persecute him!' Because the root of the matter is found in me,

King James Version
But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

English Standard Version
If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!' and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,'

New Century Version
"If you say, ‘We will continue to trouble Job, because the problem lies with him,'

New English Translation
If you say, ‘How we will pursue him, since the root of the trouble is found in him!'

Amplified Bible
"If you say, 'How shall we [continue to] persecute him?' And 'What pretext for a case against him can we find [since we claim the root of these afflictions is found in him]?'

New American Standard Bible
"If you say, 'How shall we persecute him?' And 'What pretext for a case against him can we find?'

World English Bible
If you say, 'How we will persecute him!' Because the root of the matter is found in me,

Geneva Bible (1587)
But yee sayde, Why is hee persecuted? And there was a deepe matter in me.

Legacy Standard Bible
If you say, ‘How shall we persecute him?'‘And the root of the matter is found in him?'

Berean Standard Bible
If you say, 'How shall we persecute him, since the root of the matter lies with him?'

Contemporary English Version
My friends, you think up ways to blame and torment me, saying I brought it on myself.

Complete Jewish Bible
"If you say, ‘How will we persecute him?' — the root of the matter is found in me.

Darby Translation
If ye say, How shall we persecute him? when the root of the matter is found in me,

George Lamsa Translation
For you will say, Why did we persecute him? For a good report will follow me and vindicate me.

Good News Translation
"How can we torment him?" You looked for some excuse to attack me.

Lexham English Bible
"If you say, ‘How will we persecute him?' And ‘The root of the trouble is found' in me,

Literal Translation
For you may say, Why do we persecute him? And the root of the matter is found in me.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
when yee saye: Why do not we persecute him? we haue founde an occasion agaynst him.

American Standard Version
If ye say, How we will persecute him! And that the root of the matter is found in me;

Bible in Basic English
If you say, How cruel we will be to him! because the root of sin is clearly in him:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
If ye say: 'How we will persecute him!' seeing that the root of the matter is found in me;

King James Version (1611)
But ye should say, Why persecute we him? seeing the root of the matter is found in me.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
But ye saide, why is he persecuted? and there was a deepe matter in me.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
But if ye shall also say, What shall we say before him, and so find the root of the matter in him?

English Revised Version
If ye say, How we will persecute him! seeing that the root of the matter is found in me;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whi therfor seien ye now, Pursue we hym, and fynde we the roote of a word ayens hym?

Update Bible Version
If you say, How we will persecute him! And that the root of the matter is found in me;

Webster's Bible Translation
But ye would say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

New King James Version
If you should say, "How shall we persecute him?'-- Since the root of the matter is found in me,

New Living Translation
"How dare you go on persecuting me, saying, ‘It's his own fault'?

New Life Bible
If you say, ‘How will we make it hard for him?' and, ‘The root of the problem is in him,'

New Revised Standard
If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!' and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him';

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Surely ye should say - Why should we persecute him? seeing, the root of the matter, is found in me.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Why then do you say now: Let us persecute him, and let us find occasion of word against him?

Revised Standard Version
If you say, 'How we will pursue him!' and, 'The root of the matter is found in him';

Young's Literal Translation
But ye say, `Why do we pursue after him?' And the root of the matter hath been found in me.

THE MESSAGE
"If you're thinking, ‘How can we get through to him, get him to see that his trouble is all his own fault?' Forget it. Start worrying about yourselves. Worry about your own sins and God's coming judgment, for judgment is most certainly on the way."

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"If you say, 'How shall we persecute him?' And 'What pretext for a case against him can we find?'

Contextual Overview

²³ "I wish someone would write down everything I say. I wish my words were written on a scroll. ²⁴ I wish they were carved with an iron tool into lead or scratched on a rock so that they would last forever. ²⁵ I know that there is someone to defend me and that he lives! And in the end, he will stand here on earth and defend me. ²⁶ After I leave my body and my skin has been destroyed, I know I will still see God. ²⁷ I will see him with my own eyes. I myself, not someone else, will see God. And I cannot tell you how excited that makes me feel! ²⁸ "Maybe you will say, ‘How can we push Job a little harder and make him realize that he is the source of his problems?' ²⁹ But you need to worry about your own punishment. God might use the sword against you! Then you will know there is a time for judgment."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Why: Job 19:22, Psalms 69:26

seeing: etc. or, and what root of matter is found in me, the root. 1 Kings 14:13

in me: Instead of bee, "in me," bo, "in him," is the reading of more than 100 manuscripts.

Reciprocal: Job 6:13 - Is not my Matthew 13:21 - root Mark 4:17 - have Luke 8:13 - and these 1 John 3:9 - for

Cross-References

Genesis 19:10
But the two men staying with Lot opened the door, pulled him back inside the house, and closed the door.

Genesis 19:11
Then they did something to the men outside the door—they caused all these evil men, young and old, to become blind. So the men trying to get in the house could not find the door.

Psalms 107:34
He made the fertile land become salty, because the people living there did such evil things.

2 Peter 2:7
But he saved Lot, a good man who lived there. Lot was greatly troubled by the morally bad lives of those evil people.

Jude 1:7
Also, remember the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other towns around them. Like those angels they were full of sexual sin and involved themselves in sexual relations that are wrong. And they suffer the punishment of eternal fire, an example for us to see.

Revelation 9:2
Then the star opened the hole leading to the pit. Smoke came up from the hole like smoke from a big furnace. The sun and sky became dark because of the smoke from the hole.

Revelation 18:9
"The rulers of the earth who sinned sexually with her and shared her wealth will see the smoke from her burning. Then they will cry and be sad because of her death.

Revelation 18:18
They saw the smoke from her burning. They cried out, ‘There was never a city like this great city!'

Revelation 19:3
These people also said, "Hallelujah! She is burning and her smoke will rise forever and ever."

Revelation 21:8
But those who are cowards, those who refuse to believe, those who do terrible things, those who kill, those who sin sexually, those who do evil magic, those who worship idols, and those who tell lies—they will all have a place in the lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 word of God has a place in him, and is become the ingrafted word; the root doctrines, the principal and fundamental truths of religion, are believed and professed by him, such as respect the incarnation of the Messiah, his resurrection from the dead, and coming to judgment, the resurrection of all the dead in the same body, a future state of happiness, in which saints will enjoy the beatific vision; since these things are firmly believed by him, though he may differ from us in some points about the methods of divine Providence, let us cease from persecuting him any further; see

Romans 10:8.

k שרש דבר "radix verbi", Montanus, Mercerus, Schmidt, Michaelis; "radix sermonis", Cocceius; "fundamenta negotii salutis", Tigurine version.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But ye should say - Noyes renders this, “Since ye say, ‘How may we persecute him, and find grounds of accusation against him?’” Dr. Good,

Then shall ye say, “How did we persecute him?”

When the root of the matter is disclosed in me.

The Vulgate, “Why now do ye say, let us persecute him, and find ground of accusation - “radicem verbi” against him?” The Septuagint, “If you also say, What shall we say against him? and what ground of accusation - ῥίζαν λόγου rizan logou - shall we find in him?” Rosenmuller renders it, “When you say, let us persecute him, and see what ground of accusation we can find in him, then fear the sword.” Most critics concur in such an interpretation as implies that they had sought a ground of accusation against him, and that they would have occasion to fear the divine displeasure on account of it. It seems to me, however, that our translators have given substantially the fair sense of the Hebrew. A slight variation would, perhaps, better express the idea: “For you will yet say, Why did we persecute him? The root of the matter was found in him - and since this will be the case, fear now that justice will overtake you for it, for vengeance will not always slumber when a friend of God is wronged.”

Seeing the root of the matter - Margin, “and” what “root of matter is found in me.” The word rendered “matter” (דבר dâbâr), “word or thing.” means, properly, word or thing - and may refer to “any” thing. Here it is used in one of the two opposite senses, “piety” or “guilt” - as being “the thing” under consideration. The interpretation to be adopted must depend on the view taken of the other words of the sentence. To me it seems that it denotes piety, and that the idea is, that the root of true piety was in him, or that he was not a hypocrite. The word root is so common as to need no explanation. It is used sometimes to denote the “bottom,” or the lowest part of anything - as e. g., the foot (see Job 13:27, “margin”), the bottom of the mountains Job 28:9, or of the sea, Job 36:30, “margin.” Here it means the foundation, support, or source - as the root is of a tree; and the sense, I suppose, is, that he was not a dead trunk, but he was like a tree that had a root, and consequently support and life. Many critics, however, among whom is Gesenius, suppose that it means that the root of the controversy, that is, the ground of strife, was in “him,” or that he was the cause of the whole dispute.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 19:28. But ye should say — Or, Then ye shall say.

Why persecute we him — Or, as Mr. Good, How did we persecute him! Alas! we are now convinced that we did wrong.

Seeing the root of the matter — A pure practice, and a sound hope, resting on the solid ground of sound faith, received from God himself. Instead of בי bi, in ME, בי bo, in HIM, is the reading of more than one hundred of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and in several of the versions. Seeing the root of the matter is found in HIM.