Commentaries Dictionaries Concordances

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Job 16:5

The verse no doubt carries on the idea of the preceding:

I could strengthen you with my mouth,

And the condolence of my lips could assuage your grief.

The emphasis falls on mouthand lips. Job could give them lip-comfort enough, pour out abundance of words in which lay no power to uphold the heart as they did not proceed from the heart. "Condolence" as ch. Job 2:11.

Continues after advertising

See also Job 16:5 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Job 16:5. _I WOULD STRENGTHEN YOU WITH MY MOUTH_] Mr. _Good_ translates thus: - "With my own mouth will I overpower you, Till the quivering of my lips shall fail;" for which rendering he con...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    (But I would strengthen you with my mouth With that which proceeds from the mouth - words. AND THE MOVING OF MY LIPS - My speaking - implying that it would have been done in a mild, gentle, kind mann...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER S 16-17 JOB'S REPLY TO ELIPHAZ _ 1. Miserable comforters are ye all (Job 16:1)_ 2. Oh God! Thou hast done it! (Job 16:6) 3. Yet I look to Thee (Job 16:15) 4. Trouble upon trouble; self-pit...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    Job has had enough of his tormenting comforters (Job 16:2 f.). He could, if the positions were reversed, well enough offer them such mere verbal consolation (the stress in Job 16:5 is on mouth and lip...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    BUT I WOULD STRENGTHEN YOU WITH MY MOUTH— _I would rather encourage you with my mouth, and the vehemency of my eloquence should be kept within bounds._ This is very applicable to the treatment that he...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    B. JOB'S TRIALVINDICATION OR? (Job 16:1, Job 17:16). 1. The words of his friends are aimless and unprofitable. (Job 16:1-5) TEXT 16:1-5 16 THEN JOB ANSWERED AND SAID, 2 I have heard many such thing...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    _BUT I WOULD STRENGTHEN YOU WITH MY MOUTH, AND THE MOVING OF MY LIPS SHOULD ASSWAGE YOUR GRIEF._ Strengthen with ... mouth - bitter irony. In allusion to Eliphaz' boasted "consolations" (Job 15:11)....

  • Darby's translation notes (1890)

    16:5 solace (e-11) Or 'movement.'...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    JOB'S FOURTH SPEECH (JOB 16:17) See introductory remarks on Job 15-21. 1-5. Job retorts scornfully that he too could offer such empty 'comfort' if he were in the friends' place....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    Job would have acted very differently (Job 4:3; Job 29), giving no mere lip-comfort. 6-17. Job enlarges on the wrath of God and the enmity of man. Neither speech nor silence brings him relief. 7-9. T...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    Job’s friends wanted to help him. They tried to teach him about God. They tried to show Job his errors. And they wanted to encourage him. But their words did not help Job. They never understood the r...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    JOB, A SERVANT OF GOD Job _KEITH SIMONS_ Words in boxes (except for words in brackets) are from the Bible. This commentary has been through Advanced Checking. CHAPTER 16 JOB REPLIES TO ELIPHAZ’S...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    אֲאַמִּצְכֶ֥ם בְּמֹו ־פִ֑י וְ נִ֖יד שְׂפָתַ֣י...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    XIV. "MY WITNESS IN HEAVEN" Job 16:1; Job 17:1 Job SPEAKS IF it were comforting to be told of misery and misfortune, to hear the doom of insolent evildoers described again and again in varying term...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    TURNING FROM “MISERABLE COMFORTERS” UNTO GOD Job 16:1 With bitterness the sufferer turns from his comforters to God. As the r.v. makes clear, he says that if he were in their place and they in his,...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    Job immediately answered. His answer dealt less with the argument they suggested than before. While the darkness was still about him, and in some senses the agony of his soul was deepening, yet it is...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    [But] I would strengthen you (e) with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage [your grief]. (e) If this were in my power, yet I would comfort you and not do as you do to me....

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Wag, or shake my head out of pity, chap. xlii. 11., and Nahum iii. 7. The same sign often indicates astonishment or contempt, Psalm xxi. 8., and Matthew xxvii. 28. (Calmet)_...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    (3) Shall vain 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...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 4 THROUGH 31. As to the friends of Job, they do not call for any extended remarks. They urge the doctrine that God's earthly government is a full measure and...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    [BUT] I WOULD STRENGTHEN YOU WITH MY MOUTH,.... Comfort them with the words of his mouth; so God strengthens his people with strength in their souls, when he answers them with good and comfortable wor...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    Job 16:5 [But] I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage [your grief]. Ver. 5. _But I would strengthen you with my mouth_] I would speak to your hearts, and raise...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _But I would strengthen you with my mouth_ I would endeavour to direct, support, and comfort you, and say all I could to assuage your grief, but nothing to aggravate it. It is natural to sufferers to...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    JOB COMPLAINS OF THE UNMERCIFUL ATTITUDE OF HIS FRIENDS...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    But I would strengthen you with my mouth, mere words taking the place of real deeds of love, AND THE MOVING OF MY LIPS SHOULD ASSUAGE YOUR GRIEF, a bitter reference to the hollow consolations which El...

  • Leslie M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

    JOB REPROVES THEIR HEARTLESSNESS (vv.1-5) Eliphaz had claimed to be giving Job "the consolations of God," and this moves Job to reply bitterly, "Miserable comforters are you all!" (v.2). Instead of...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    1-5 Eliphaz had represented Job's discourses as unprofitable, and nothing to the purpose; Job here gives his the same character. Those who pass censures, must expect to have them retorted; it is easy...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    STRENGTHEN YOU, i.e. direct, and support, and comfort you. My discourse should comfort you. The words _your grief_ are here understood, either out of the foregoing clause, where they are implied; or o...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Job 16:5 strengthen H553 (H8762) with H1119 mouth H6310 comfort H5205 lips H8193 relieve H2820 (H8799) But I

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Job charges that Eliphaz is but heaping up words. CHARACTERS: God, Job, three friends. CONCLUSION: It is a great comfort to a good man who lies under the censures of brethren who do not un...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    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...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    JOB—NOTE ON JOB 16:1 Job responds again. He begins by pointing out that his friends have failed as comforters (Job 16:2), even though comfort was their original purpose for coming to him (see...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    _JOB’S SECOND REPLY TO ELIPHAZ_ I. Complains of the want of sympathy on the part of his friends (Job 16:2). 1. _They gave him only verses from the ancients about the punishment of the wicked and the...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION Job answers the second speech of Eliphaz in a discourse which occupies two (short) chapters, and is thus not much more lengthy than the speech of his antagonist. His tone is very despairing...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    So Job answered and said, I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are you all. Shall empty words (Job 16:1) Talking about vanity, he said, Shall empty words have an end? or what emboldens...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    Galatians 6:1; Isaiah 35:3; Isaiah 35:4; Job 29:25; Job 4:3;...

Continues after advertising