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He has demolished me on every side, and I am finished. He has uprooted my hope like a fallen tree.
Job 19:10 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope he has plucked up like a tree.
  • KJV He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.
  • BSB He tears me down on every side until I am gone; He uproots my hope like a tree.
  • NKJV He breaks me down on every side, And I am gone; My hope He has uprooted like a tree.
  • NASB “He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; And He has uprooted my hope like a tree.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Job says God has broken him down on every side and uprooted his hope like a tree. He feels demolished and without future.

Overview

Job describes himself as a building torn down and a tree pulled up by the roots, his hope destroyed. The double image conveys complete ruin of both his life and his expectations. Yet even uprooted hope is not the end of the story for the believer, for in Christ there springs up a living hope that cannot be destroyed (1 Peter 1:3).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 14

  • Job 24:20The womb shall forget him. The worm shall feed sweetly on him. He shall be no more remembered. Unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.
  • Ps 37:35–36I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil.
  • Job 12:14Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
  • 2 Cor 4:8–9We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair;
  • Job 17:15where then is my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
  • Job 8:13–18So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man shall perish,
  • Job 17:11My days are past, my plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.
  • Lam 2:5–6The Lord has become as an enemy, he has swallowed up Israel; He has swallowed up all her palaces, he has destroyed his strongholds; He has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
  • Ps 102:11My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.
  • Job 6:11What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient?
  • Job 1:13–19It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
  • Ps 88:13–18But to you, Yahweh, I have cried. In the morning, my prayer comes before you.
  • Job 2:7So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.
  • Job 7:6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 19:10YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.

How Job 19:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.