Job 19:26 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

The style of this and other poetical books is concise and short, and therefore many words are to be understood in some places to complete the sense. The meaning of the place is this, Though my skin is now in a great measure consumed by sores, and the rest of it, together with this body, shall be devoured by the worms; which may seem to make my case quite desperate. Heb. And though (which particle, as it is oft elsewhere, is here to be understood, as the opposition of the next branch showeth) after my skin (which either now is, or suddenly will be, consumed by sores or worms) they (i.e. the destroyers, or devourers, as is implied in the verb; such impersonal speeches being usual in the Scripture; as Genesis 1:26 Luke 12:20, Luke 16:9, where the actions are expressed, but the persons or things acting are understood. And by the destroyers he most probably designs the worms, which do this work in the grave) destroy, or cut off, or devour this, i.e. all this which you see left of me, this which I now point to, all this which is contained within my skin, all my flesh and bones, this which I know not what to call, whether a living body, or a dead carcass, because it is between both; and therefore he did not say this body, because it did scarce deserve that name. Yet; for the particle and is oft used adversatively; or then, as it is oft rendered. In my flesh, Heb. out of my flesh, or with (as the particle mem is used, Song of Solomon 1:2, Song of Solomon 3:9 Isaiah 57:8) my flesh, i.e. with eyes of flesh, as Job himself calls them, Job 10:4; or with bodily eyes; my flesh or body being raised from the grave, and restored and reunited to my soul. And this is very fitly added, to show that he did not speak of a mental or spiritual, but of a corporeal vision, and that after his death. Shall I see God; the same whom he called his redeemer Job 19:25, i.e. Christ; of which see the note there; who being God-man, and having taken flesh, and appearing in his flesh or body with and for Job upon the earth, as was said Job 19:25, might very well be seen with his bodily eyes. Nor is this understood of a simple seeing of him; for so even they that pierced him shall see him, Revelation 1:7; but of seeing him with delight and comfort, as that word is oft understood, as Genesis 48:11 Job 42:16 Psalms 128:5 Isaiah 53:11; of that glorious and beatifying vision of God which is promised to all God's people, Psalms 16:11, Psalms 17:15 Matthew 5:8 1 Corinthians 13:12 1 John 3:2.