約伯記 16:1-3 CUNPTS

The Pulpit Commentary - Job 16:2

Miserable comforters. Job is able to rise above his foolish, narrow-minded friends, and look down upon them with good-humoured, pitying irony. So little do they understand him! So proudly do they trust in their empty words! And it is all a delusion. Job is almost ready to forget their impertinence as he turns to the far more important question of God's dealings with him. But first he gives them their true character. They are all "miserable comforters." I. MISERABLE COMFORTERS FAIL ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Job 16:3

Shall vain words have an end? literally, as in the margin, words of wind ; i.e. words which pass by a man "as the idle wind which he regards not." Will his friends never bring their futile speaking to a close? Or what emboldeneth thee that thou anwerest? rather, what provoketh thee? (Revised Version) Job had begged that his friends would be silent ( Job 13:5 , Job 13:13 ). He supposes that they would have complied with his wish if he had not provoked them, but professes an... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Job 16:2

Many such things - That is, either things fitted to provoke and irritate, or sentiments that are common-place. There was nothing new in what they said, and nothing to the purpose.Miserable comforters - Compare Job 13:4. They had come professedly to condole with him. Now all that they said was adapted only to irritate, and to deepen his distress. He was disappointed; and he was deeply wounded and grieved. read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Job 16:3

Shall vain words? - Margin, As in Hebrew words of wind; that is, words which were devoid of thought-light, trifling. This is a retort on Eliphaz. He had charged Job Job 15:2-3 with uttering only such words. Such forms of expression are common in the East. “His promise, it is only wind.” “Breath, breath: all breath.” Roberts.Or what emboldeneth thee? - “What provokes or irritates thee, that thou dost answer in this manner? What have I said, that has given occasion to such a speech - a speech so... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Job 16:1

Job 16:1. Then Job answered and said “Job, above measure grieved that his friends should treat him in this cruel manner, expostulates very tenderly with them on the subject. He tells them he should, in the like circumstances, have behaved to them in a very different way, Job 16:2. That he, as well as every one about him, was in the utmost astonishment, to find a man, whom he imagined his friend, accuse him falsely, and give him worse treatment than even his greatest enemies would have done.... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Job 16:2

Job 16:2. I have heard many such things Both from you and divers others; and though you please yourselves with them, as if you had some great and important discoveries, they are but vulgar and trivial things. Miserable comforters are ye all Instead of giving me those comforts which you pretend to do, or offering any thing to alleviate my affliction, you only add to it, and make it yet more grievous. What Job says here of his friends is true of all creatures in comparison with God; at one... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Job 16:3

Job 16:3. Shall vain words have an end? When wilt thou put an end to these impertinent discourses? He retorts upon him his charge, Job 15:2-3. And what imboldeneth thee that thou answerest Namely, in such a manner, so censoriously, opprobriously, and peremptorily. What secret grounds hast thou for thy confidence? Thy arguments are weak; if thou hast any stronger, produce them. It is a great piece of confidence to charge men, as Eliphaz did Job, with those crimes which we cannot prove upon... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Job 16:1-22

Job’s reply to Eliphaz (16:1-17:16)Tired at this repetition of the friends’ unhelpful teaching, Job says he could give similar ‘comfort’ if he were in their position and they in his (16:1-5). His argument with God may not have brought relief from his pain, but neither has his silence. In fact, his physical condition only becomes worse (6-8). God opposes him and people insult him. Some deliberately try to do him harm (9-11). He feels like a helpless victim that wild animals attack, like a target... read more

E.W. Bullinger