Job chapter 16

Job’s friends wouldn’t listen to him. Instead, they keep explaining why he was suffering. So Job tells them they are miserable at providing comfort.

 


 

JOB TELLS HIS FRIENDS THEY ARE MISERABLE AT PROVIDING COMFORT

 

VERSE 1. Then Job answered,

 

VERSE 2. “I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters!

You are all miserable comforters! These “friends” are awful people. And they are awful at comforting Job in his suffering. They are inept in their pastoral care.

Pastoral ineptitude is not creative. It repeats the same errors, over and over again.

Job’s “comforters” won’t shut up. They won’t listen. They won’t stop saying things that are false.

They needed to be scolded.

 

VERSE 3. Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?

Shall vain words have an end? The NLT translation says: “Won’t you ever stop blowing hot air?”

 

VERSE 4. I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,

 

VERSE 5. but I would strengthen you with my mouth. The solace of my lips would relieve you.

 

VERSE 6. “Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I forbear, what am I eased?

 

VERSE 7. But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made desolate all my company.

You have made desolate all my company. Job was in the midst of his wife and three “friends.” Yet he was all alone. He was desolate.

 

VERSE 8. You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.

 

VERSE 9. He has torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.

 

VERSE 10. They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me.

 

VERSE 11. God delivers me to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

 

VERSE 12. I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target.

 

VERSE 13. His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my gall on the ground.

 

VERSE 14. He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs on me like a giant.

 

VERSE 15. I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and have thrust my horn in the dust.

 

VERSE 16. My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids.

 

VERSE 17. Although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.

 

VERSE 18. “Earth, don’t cover my blood. Let my cry have no place to rest.

 

VERSE 19. Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high.

my witness is in heaven. We Christians believe our witness is indeed in heaven.

He who vouches for me. We Christians believe Jesus Christ vouches for us.

 

VERSE 20. My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God,

 

VERSE 21. that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son of man with his neighbor!

NLT translation. “I need someone to mediate between God and me, as a person mediates between friends.”

I need someone to mediate. Job needs the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus!

 

VERSE 22. For when a few years have come, I shall go the way of no return.

 


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JOB

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RESOURCES: Summary, Outline, MemorizeJob’s Dark Night

Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.