Job 16:18

18 Oh earth, cover thou not my blood, And let my cry find no resting-place!! - 19 Even now behold in heaven is my Witness, And One who acknowledgeth me is in the heights! 20 Though the mockers of me are my friends - To Eloah mine eyes pour forth tears, 21 That He may decide for man against Eloah, And for the son of man against his friend. 22 For the years that may be numbered are coming on, And I shall go a way without return. Blood that is not covered up cries for vengeance, Eze 24:7.; so also blood still unavenged is laid bare that it may find vengeance, Isa 26:21. According to this idea, in the lofty consciousness of his innocence, Job calls upon the earth not to suck in his blood as of one innocently slain, but to let it lie bare, thereby showing that it must be first of all avenged ere the earth can take it up; (Note: As, according to the tradition, it is said to have been impossible to remove the stain of the blood of Zachariah the son of Jehoiada, who was murdered in the court of the temple, until it was removed by the destruction of the temple itself.) and for his cry, i.e., the cry (זעקתי to be explained according to Gen 4:10) proceeding from his blood as from his poured-out soul, he desires that it may urge its way unhindered and unstilled towards heaven without finding a place of rest (Symm. στάσις). Therefore, in the very God who appears to him to be a blood-thirsty enemy in pursuit of him, Job nevertheless hopes to find a witness of his innocence: He will acknowledge his blood, like that of Abel, to be the blood of an innocent man. It is an inward irresistible demand made by his faith which here brings together two opposite principles - principles which the understanding cannot unite - with bewildering boldness. Job believes that God will even finally aven…

This chapter begins Job's reply to that discourse of Eliphaz which we had in the foregoing chapter; it is but the second part of the same song of lamentation with which he had before bemoaned himself, and is set to the same melancholy tune. I. He upbraids his friends with their unkind usage of him (Job 16:1-5). II. He represents his own case as very deplorable upon all accounts (Job 16:6-16). III. He still holds fast his integrity, concerning which he appeals to God's righteous judgment from the unrighteous censures of his friends (Job 16:14-22).

16:18-22 Job expected his suffering to prove fatal (7:7, 21; 10:20-22); he pleaded with God to reveal his innocence even if he died first. 16:18 Job’s blood would cry out that he had been innocent and that he had suffered undeservedly (cp. Gen 4:10-11; Isa 26:21; Ezek 24:7-8).