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But I know my redeemer lives, and in the end he will stand up on earth and after they flay my skin, from my flesh I shall behold God.  Job 19:25-26  Robert Alter

My redeemer – Job never met Samuel Medley, but if he had, perhaps we would have corrected the lyrics Medley used in his now-famous hymn.  In 1775, Medley wrote these words:

I know that my Redeemer lives;
what comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, He lives, who once was dead;
He lives, my everlasting Head.

He lives triumphant from the grave,
He lives eternally to save,
He lives all-glorious in the sky,
He lives exalted there on high.[1]

The hymn continues, substituting the meaning of the Hebrew gōʾēl with the Christian capitalized “Redeemer,” namely Jesus.  Job would point out that gōʾēl does not necessarily mean “the Messiah.”  “The primary meaning of this root is to do the part of a kinsman and thus to redeem his kin from difficulty or danger. It is used with its derivatives 118 times. One difference between this root and the very similar root pādâ ‘redeem,’ is that there is usually an emphasis in gāʾal on the redemption being the privilege or duty of a near relative.”^[2]  Job would also point out that gōʾēl has a common usage in the Psalms and the prophets as “Israel’s Redeemer who will stand up for his people and vindicate them. There may be a hint of the Father’s near kinship or ownership in the use of this word. A redemption price is not usually cited, though the idea of judgment on Israel’s oppressors as a ransom is included in Isa 43:1–3. God, as it were, redeems his sons from a bondage worse than slavery.”^[3]  In other words, it takes a radical shift in theology to imagine that Job’s statement has anything to do with Jesus.

If Job isn’t thinking about an ultimate Messianic redemption, then what does he mean?  Robert Alter writes:

This famous line, long the subject of Christological interpretation, in fact continues the imagery of a legal trial ot which Job reverts so often.  The redeemer is someone, usually a family member, would come forth and bear witness on his behalf, and the use of “stand up” in the second verset has precisely that courtroom connotation.[4]

Notice how Job continues:  “After they flay my skin, I will see God.”  Job describes himself as the punished, condemned man.  He will see God—when it’s all over.  Alter cites Amos Hakham’s interpretation:

“The scars and the bruises in my flesh are the writing God inscribes in my flesh instead of the inscription I sought to make.”  If Hakham is right, Job would be representing himself here somewhat like the condemned man in Kafka’s ‘In the Penal Colony’ who is meant to come to an illuminating understanding of his crime through the terrible machine that inscribes his transgression on his flesh.  Job, however, does not concede that he has sinned, so the idea he expresses is that through all his suffering, through the tatters of his lacerated flesh, he will in the end behold God, come face-to-face with his divine persecutor and finally vindicate himself.[5]

Are you able to lift yourself from the dominant Christian paradigmatic interpretation and hear what Job says in its Semitic context?  Will you be able to sing the hymn again and not think about its transformation from one culture to another?  Isn’t it amazing how easily religious ideas are transported from their original context to fit the assumptions of another world?

Topical Index: redeemer, Samuel Medley, gōʾēl, Messiah, Amos Hakham, Job 19:25-26

[1] Samuel Medley, “I know that my Redeemer lives, What comfort this sweet sentence gives,” https://hymnary.org/text/i_know_that_my_redeemer_lives_what_joy

^[2] Harris, R. L. (1999). 300 גָּאַל. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 144). Moody Press.

^[3] Ibid.

[4] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, Vol. 2 The Prophets, p. 514, fn. 25.

[5] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, Vol. 2 The Prophets, p. 515, fn. 26.