Have pity upon me, have {m} pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

(m) Seeing I have these just causes to complain, condemn me not as a hypocrite, especially you who should comfort me.

Wesley's Notes

19:21 Touched me - My spirit is touched with a sense of his wrath, a calamity of all others the most grievous.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. When God had made him such a piteous spectacle, his friends should spare him the additional persecution of their cruel speeches.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:8-22 How doleful are Job's complaints! What is the fire of hell but the wrath of God! Seared consciences will feel it hereafter, but do not fear it now: enlightened consciences fear it now, but shall not feel it hereafter. It is a very common mistake to think that those whom God afflicts he treats as his enemies. Every creature is that to us which God makes it to be; yet this does not excuse Job's relations and friends. How uncertain is the friendship of men! but if God be our Friend, he will not fail us in time of need. What little reason we have to indulge the body, which, after all our care, is consumed by diseases it has in itself. Job recommends himself to the compassion of his friends, and justly blames their harshness. It is very distressing to one who loves God, to be bereaved at once of outward comfort and of inward consolation; yet if this, and more, come upon a believer, it does not weaken the proof of his being a child of God and heir of glory.