Job 19:13

He has alienated me from my brethren,

   My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

 

This almost sounds like what a bad person would do with their spouse to keep them pliable and subject to manipulation. Also, what a parent might do for a child with bad friends. Also what an employer might do with a troublesome employee. Apparently, it is also what God might do if we need to be protected from our environment.

‘Brethren’ was also ‘family’, ‘brothers’, and ‘kin’. ‘Alienated’ was also ‘put me far’, ‘removed’, ‘put far from me’, and ‘distanced’.

‘Acquaintances’ was also ‘friends’ and ‘comrades’. ‘Wholly’ was also ‘completely’ or ‘verily’. ‘Estranged from’ was also ‘disowned’.

This verse starts a string of references to people that one might relate to; brethren, acquaintances, family, guest, wife, friends, etc. To some degree it reminds me of discussing the people in the various circles of influence around you. We all seek out a few close friends, a handful of regular friends, a slightly larger circle of friends, and then a bigger circle of people we interact with on purpose, and finally a circle of people we deal with if we have to because they are there. Or at least that is my paradigm as an introvert. My wife as an extrovert has a whole different set of numbers and descriptions.

Job is hitting the very inner circle and the outer circle in this leading verse. Recently, I was in a discussion about reaching out to those around the world. Those people are not in my circle. God has yet to place call on me to influence people groups in a far away land with personal effort.  I believe that He has placed me in a church that uses others to do that work and asks me to work right where I am. Of course, my sister is far from me, but I try to influence her all the time.

In my ideal, one’s immediate family is the inner circle. Growing up it was me, my mom, and my other sister. Not the model for good relationships though that might have been. Now I have my wife and my two kids. No real thought process to excluding my sisters from this inner circle, but they each have an immediate family to care for. Also, one I have had huge riffs with over the years and the other I met when I was in my forties. Having gone through periods of alienation from my parents and sister, this is no way to want to be.

As the introvert, I am not thinking that Job’s acquaintances being strangers is such a bad thing. Fewer people to be nice to and use up all my energy. But again, that is the sinful, selfish me and not the goal either. Job seemed to be genuinely concerned about being on God’s mission to all those around him at all times. That is the ideal for me, and as I think the thought, I know that this is how Christ was and how Christ calls me to be. But He also calls me knowing that He will supply all the energy I need to care for these people, and I do not have to rely on my own to do so. This is learning.

Written 11/1/25, Posted 1/6/26, Job 413/~1070