Job 16:1-22
1 Then Job answered and said,
2 I have heard many such things: miserablea comforters are ye all.
3 Shall vainb words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?
4 I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.
5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.
6 Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?
7 But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.
8 And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.
9 He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.
11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.
13 His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.
15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.
16 My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
17 Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
18 O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
19 Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.c
20 My friends scorn me: but mine eyed poureth out tears unto God.
21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!
22 When a fewe years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
Job 16:2. Miserable comforters are ye all. The Vulgate, “burdensome comforters,” who afflicted instead of consoling their friend.
Job 16:3. Shall vain words have an end. He plainly tells Eliphaz that he did not understand his case.
Job 16:9. He who hateth me teareth me in his wrath. So the text should be transposed. They have gaped upon me, and smitten me. Not God, for he loves those whom he chastens; not Satan, for he is invisible; but an envious rival, who thought that Job's prosperity was his right, and therefore rejoiced at his fall.
Job 16:14. Like a giant. Men about nine feet high. See Genesis 6:4.
Job 16:15. I have defiled my horn. The horn designates majesty, power, and prosperity. The horn of the righteous shall be exalted. Psalms 112:9. The horn was defiled in the dust when the beast was slain; so Job laid his case at the Lord's feet.
Job 16:18. Oh earth, cover not thou my blood. Conceal not my wrongs when I am dead: for he adds in Job 16:22, “I go whence I shall not return.”
REFLECTIONS.
Job rises under feelings differing widely from his friends. Though afflicted and borne down, he is only depressed. He replies with a conscious mind; he feels a superiority in liberal views of providence, and in excellence of sentiment. Had they been in his case, he would have comforted them, and upheld their hands; whereas all their artillery of argument were pointed to cast him down.
He next recites his anguish, and the reproaches of his enemies, which should have excited their compassion. He was a prince fallen and desolate, the wrinkles of age were on his face, and leanness had wasted his flesh. His envious neighbours gnashed their teeth against him, while others gazed, with ungracious aspects, as on one going to execution. His face was besmeared with weeping, but not for injustice to his neighbour; in that view his hands were clean, and his devotion pure. Thus impressed in mind, and affected in heart, he utters the sublimest apostrophe to heaven which could possibly proceed from man. “Oh earth, cover thou not my blood, and deny not a record to my cry. For now behold, my witness is in heaven, and my testimony in the highest.” The true sublime in fine writing is always simple in expression, and copies the grandeur of nature, whether of sentiment or of action, just as she is.
Job having now no comfort left on earth, and perceiving that in a few years he must go the final journey, whence he should not return, groans in spirit for the aids of religious society. “Oh that one might plead for a man with God.” To the sick and dying, the society of holy and heavenly-minded people, affords the sweetest consolation that can be enjoyed on earth. But in this tragic case, the three prophets who attended Job were so misguided and employed by Satan, as to pierce his soul with the keenest darts of anguish and grief. If an enemy had done this, I could have borne it; but you my three friends, alas, alas!