My kinsmen have failed me, and my friends have forgotten me.
Parallel translations
- WEB My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.
- KJV My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
- NKJV My relatives have failed, And my close friends have forgotten me.
- NASB “My relatives have failed, And my close friends have forgotten me.
- NLT My family is gone, and my close friends have forgotten me.
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 his relatives have deserted him and his close friends have forgotten him. He is left utterly alone.
Overview
Those bound to Job by blood and intimacy have abandoned and forgotten him in his hour of need. The loss of family and trusted companions deepens his desolation. Job's abandonment foreshadows the greater forsakenness of Christ, who endured rejection so that his people might never be ultimately forsaken (Hebrews 13:5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ps 38:11My beloved and friends shun my disease, and my kinsmen stand at a distance.
- Matt 10:21Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rise against their parents and have them put to death.
- Prov 18:24A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who stays closer than a brother.
- Ps 55:12–14For it is not an enemy who insults me; that I could endure. It is not a foe who rises against me; from him I could hide.
- John 13:18I am not speaking about all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the Scripture: ‘The one who shares My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’
- Jer 20:10For I have heard the whispering of many: “Terror is on every side! Report him; let us report him!” All my trusted friends watch for my fall: “Perhaps he will be deceived so that we may prevail against him and take our vengeance upon him.”
- Mic 7:5–6Do not rely on a friend; do not trust in a companion. Seal the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms.
- 2 Sam 16:23Now in those days the advice of Ahithophel was like the consultation of the word of God. Such was the regard that both David and Absalom had for Ahithophel’s advice.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 19:14 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.