Lectionary Calendar
the First Sunday, December 28th, 2025
the Sunday after Christmas
Attention!
For 10¢ a day you can enjoy StudyLight.org ads
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Job 19:21

"Oh, friends, dear friends, take pity on me. God has come down hard on me! Do you have to be hard on me, too? Don't you ever tire of abusing me?

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Blasphemy;   Friendship;   Thompson Chain Reference - Divine;   God;   God's;   Hand, Divine;   Job;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;   Mercy, Merciful;   Pity;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Leper;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Job, Book of;   Pity;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy,for God’s hand has struck me.
Hebrew Names Version
"Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends; For the hand of God has touched me.
King James Version
Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
English Standard Version
Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!
New Century Version
Pity me, my friends, pity me, because the hand of God has hit me.
New English Translation
Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me, for the hand of God has struck me.
Amplified Bible
"Have pity on me! Have pity on me, O you my friends, For the hand of God has touched me.
New American Standard Bible
"Pity me, pity me, you friends of mine, For the hand of God has struck me.
World English Bible
"Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends; For the hand of God has touched me.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Haue pitie vpon me: haue pitie vpon me, (O yee my friendes) for the hande of God hath touched me.
Legacy Standard Bible
Pity me, pity me, O you my friends,For the hand of God has smitten me.
Berean Standard Bible
Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.
Contemporary English Version
My friends, I beg you for pity! God has made me his target.
Complete Jewish Bible
"Pity me, friends of mine, pity me! For the hand of God has struck me!
Darby Translation
Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, ye my friends; for the hand of +God hath touched me.
Easy-to-Read Version
"Pity me, my friends, pity me, because God is against me.
George Lamsa Translation
Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O you my friends; for the hand of God has been against me.
Good News Translation
You are my friends! Take pity on me! The hand of God has struck me down.
Lexham English Bible
"Pity me, pity me, you my friends, for God's hand has touched me.
Literal Translation
Pity me! Pity me, you my friends! For the hand of God has touched me.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Haue pite vpon me, haue pite vpon me (o ye my frendes) for the hande of the LORDE hath touched me.
American Standard Version
Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; For the hand of God hath touched me.
Bible in Basic English
Have pity on me, have pity on me, O my friends! for the hand of God is on me.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
King James Version (1611)
Haue pity vpon me, haue pitie vpon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Haue pitie vpon me, haue pitie vpon me, O ye my friendes, for the hande of God hath touched me.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Pity me, pity me, O friends; for it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me.
English Revised Version
Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Haue ye merci on me, haue ye merci on me, nameli, ye my frendis; for the hond of the Lord hath touchid me.
Update Bible Version
Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends; For the hand of God has touched me.
Webster's Bible Translation
Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
New King James Version
"Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, For the hand of God has struck me!
New Living Translation
"Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy, for the hand of God has struck me.
New Life Bible
Have pity on me. Have pity on me, O you my friends. For the hand of God has hit me.
New Revised Standard
Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Pity me! pity me! ye, my friends, for, the hand of GOD, hath stricken me!
Douay-Rheims Bible
Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you my friends, because the hand of the Lord hath touched me.
Revised Standard Version
Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!
Young's Literal Translation
Pity me, pity me, ye my friends, For the hand of God hath stricken against me.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Pity me, pity me, O you my friends, For the hand of God has struck me.

Contextual Overview

13"God alienated my family from me; everyone who knows me avoids me. My relatives and friends have all left; houseguests forget I ever existed. The servant girls treat me like a bum off the street, look at me like they've never seen me before. I call my attendant and he ignores me, ignores me even though I plead with him. My wife can't stand to be around me anymore. I'm repulsive to my family. Even street urchins despise me; when I come out, they taunt and jeer. Everyone I've ever been close to abhors me; my dearest loved ones reject me. I'm nothing but a bag of bones; my life hangs by a thread. 21"Oh, friends, dear friends, take pity on me. God has come down hard on me! Do you have to be hard on me, too? Don't you ever tire of abusing me?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

have pity: Job 6:14, Romans 12:15, 1 Corinthians 12:26, Hebrews 13:3

the hand: Job 1:11, Job 2:5, Job 2:10, Job 6:4, Psalms 38:2

Reciprocal: Genesis 3:3 - touch Ruth 1:13 - the hand Ruth 2:9 - touch thee Job 2:11 - friends Job 4:5 - it toucheth Job 6:9 - that he would Job 21:5 - be astonished Job 32:13 - God Psalms 6:2 - my Psalms 69:20 - comforters Psalms 69:26 - For Psalms 109:16 - persecuted Ecclesiastes 4:1 - they had Jeremiah 15:5 - For who Lamentations 3:1 - the man Acts 13:11 - hand

Cross-References

Genesis 12:2
I'll make you a great nation and bless you. I'll make you famous; you'll be a blessing. I'll bless those who bless you; those who curse you I'll curse. All the families of the Earth will be blessed through you."
Genesis 19:9
They said, "Get lost! You drop in from nowhere and now you're going to tell us how to run our lives. We'll treat you worse than them!" And they charged past Lot to break down the door.
Genesis 19:15
At break of day, the angels pushed Lot to get going, "Hurry. Get your wife and two daughters out of here before it's too late and you're caught in the punishment of the city."
Genesis 19:16
Lot was dragging his feet. The men grabbed Lot's arm, and the arms of his wife and daughters— God was so merciful to them!—and dragged them to safety outside the city. When they had them outside, Lot was told, "Now run for your life! Don't look back! Don't stop anywhere on the plain—run for the hills or you'll be swept away."
Psalms 34:15
God keeps an eye on his friends, his ears pick up every moan and groan.
Psalms 145:19
He does what's best for those who fear him— hears them call out, and saves them.
Jeremiah 14:10
Then God said of these people: "Since they loved to wander this way and that, never giving a thought to where they were going, I will now have nothing more to do with them— except to note their guilt and punish their sins."
Luke 11:8
"But let me tell you, even if he won't get up because he's a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he'll finally get up and get you whatever you need.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Have pity upon me, have pity upon me,.... Instead of calumny and censure, his case called for compassion; and the phrase is doubled, to denote the vehemence of his affliction, the ardency of his soul, the anguish of his spirits, the great distress he was in, and the earnest desire he had to have pity shown him; and in which he may be thought not only to make a request to his friends for it, but to give them a reproof for want of it:

O ye my friends; as they once showed themselves to be, and now professed they were; and since they did, pity might be reasonably expected from them; for even common humanity, and much more friendship, required it of them, that they should be pitiful and courteous, and put on bowels of mercy and kindness, and commiserate his sad estate, and give him all the succour, relief, and comfort they could, see Job 6:14;

for the hand of God has touched me; his afflicting hand, which is a mighty one; it lay hard and heavy upon him, and pressed him sore; for though it was but a touch of his hand, it was more than he could well bear; for it was the touch of the Almighty, who "toucheth the hills, and they smoke", Psalms 104:32; and if he lays his hand ever so lightly on houses of clay, which have their foundation in the dust, they cannot support under the weight of it, since they are crushed before the moth, or as easily as a moth is crushed.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Have pity on me - A tender, pathetic cry for sympathy. “God has afflicted me, and stripped me of all my comforts, and I am left a poor, distressed, forsaken man. I make my appeal to you, my friends, and entreat you to have pity; to sympathize with me, and to sustain me by the words of consolation.” One would have supposed that these words would have gone to the heart, and that we should hear no more of their bitter reproofs. But far otherwise was the fact.

The hand of God hath touched me - Hath smitten me; or is heavy upon me. The meaning is, that he had been subjected to great calamities by God, and that it was right to appeal now to his friends, and to expect their sympathy and compassion. On the usual meaning of the word here rendered, “hath touched” (נגעה nâga‛âh from נגע nâga‛ ), see the notes at Isaiah 53:4.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 19:21. Have pity upon me — The iteration here strongly indicates the depth of his distress, and that his spirit was worn down with the length and severity of his suffering.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile