Job 19:25
For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth.
In the palace
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Scio enim quod redemptor meus vivit, et in novissimo die de terra surrecturus sum :
- Septuagint (Swete)
- οἶδα γὰρ ὅτι ἀέναός ἐστιν ὁ ἐκλύειν με μέλλων· ἐπὶ γῆς
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַאֲנִ֣י יָ֭דַעְתִּי גֹּ֣אֲלִי חָ֑י וְ֝אַחֲר֗וֹן עַל עָפָ֥ר יָקֽוּם
Haydock's commentary
Redeemer may be understood of the Deity, without confining it to the second Person; (Isaias xli. 14., and xlix. 7.; Piscator) though it may have a more peculiar reference to Christ: (Junius; Haydock) in whom he believed, as the Redeemer of all mankind. (Calmet)
Earth. Yea, ere long I shall be restored to health, (St. Chrysostom; Grotius) as an earnest and figure of the resurrection. Nothing is more common, in Scripture, than for the same prophecy to have a double accomplishment; one soon after it is made public, and another more sublime and remote. Job seemed to have no expectation of surviving his present misery, (ver. 7., and chap. vii. 7., and xxiv. 15.) unless God now revealed it to him, as a figure of his future resurrection, founded on the hope of our Saviour's, which he expresses in much clearer terms. Hebrew, "I know that my Redeemer is living, and that he will raise himself one day upon the earth," (Calmet) like a conqueror, (Haydock) or wrestler, having overthrown his antagonist: (Amama) or, "he will stand the last upon the earth, or dust," (Piscator) ascending his throne, to judge all. (Deodat.)
Yet Luther translates, "and one day he will raise me up from the earth;" which is not conformable to the Hebrew. Others explain, "he....will place (26) this, my skin, after they (worms) shall have ruined it." (Pagnin; Montanus)
But Amama suspects that the latter is not in earnest. Pineda defends the Vulgate and observes that yakum (Haydock) may signify, "will raise" himself, or "me;" the latter being at least a consequence of the former, if St. Jerome did not read it me in his copy. So St. Paul argues; If Christ be risen, we also shall rise again. Septuagint, "For I know that he is eternal, who will set me free," (Haydock) by death, (Calmet; or redemption; ekluein) "upon the earth."
Haydock wrote amid the controversies of his day. The Church teaches that those born into communities separated from her cannot be charged with the sin of separation, and embraces them as brothers (CCC 818).
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Clement of Rome First Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter XXVI. We shall rise again,
Do we then deem it any great and wonderful thing for the Maker of all things to raise up again those that have piously served Him in the assurance of a good faith, when even by a bird He shows us the mightiness of His power to fulfil His promise? For [the Scripture] saith in a certain place, “Thou shalt raise me up, and I shall confess unto Thee;” and again, “I laid me down, and slept; I awaked, because Thou art with me;” and again, Job says, “Thou shalt raise up this flesh of mine, which has suffered all these things.”
St Clement of Rome The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, Chapter XXVI
Do we then deem it any great and wonderful thing for the Maker of all things to raise up again those that have piously served Him in the assurance of a good faith, when even by a bird He shows us the mightiness of His power to fulfil His promise? For [the Scripture] saith in a certain place, “Thou shalt raise me up, and I shall confess unto Thee”; and again, “I laid me down, and slept”; “I awaked, because Thou art with me;” and again, Job says, “Thou shalt raise up this flesh of mine, which has suffered all these things.”
St Augustine A Treatise on Nature and Grace, Hilary. The Pure in Heart Blessed. The Doing and Perfecting of Righteousness
He quotes the following words from the blessed Hilary: “It is only when we shall be perfect in spirit and changed in our immortal state, which blessedness has been appointed only for the pure in heart, that we shall see that which is immortal in God.” Now I am really not aware what is here said contrary to our own statement, or in what respect this passage is of any use to our opponent, unless it be that it testifies to the possibility of a man’s being “pure in heart.” But who denies such possibility? Only it must be by the grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, and not merely by our freedom of will. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Paulinus
8. Genesis, we shall be told, needs no explanation; its topics are too simple, the birth of the world, the origin of the human race, the division of the earth, the confusion of tongues, and the descent of the Hebrews into Egypt! Exodus, no doubt, is equally plain, containing as it does merely an account of the ten plagues, the decalogue, and sundry mysterious and divine precepts! The meaning of Leviticus is of course self-evident, although every sacrifice that it describes, nay more every word that it contains, the description of Aaron’s vestments, and all the regulations connected with the Levites are symbols of things heavenly! The book of Numbers too, are not its very figures, and Balaam’s prophecy, and the forty-two camping places in the wilderness so many mysteries? Deuteronomy also, that is the second law or the foreshadowing of the law of the gospel, does it not, while exhibiting …