Job 16:16-21

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Job 16:6-16

Job's complaint is here as bitter as any where in all his discourses, and he is at a stand whether to smother it or to give it vent. Sometimes the one and sometimes the other is a relief to the afflicted, according as the temper or the circumstances are; but Job found help by neither, Job 16:6. 1. Sometimes giving vent to grief gives ease; but, ?Though I speak? (says Job), ?my grief is not assuaged, my spirit is never the lighter for the pouring out of my complaint; nay, what I speak is so... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Job 16:17-22

Job's condition was very deplorable; but had he nothing to support him, nothing to comfort him? Yes, and he here tells us what it was. I. He had the testimony of his conscience for him that he had walked uprightly, and had never allowed himself in any gross sin. None was ever more ready than he to acknowledge his sins of infirmity; but, upon search, he could not charge himself with any enormous crime, for which he should be made more miserable than other men, Job 16:17. 1. He had kept a... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 16:16

My face is foul with weeping ,.... On account of the loss of his substance, and especially of his children; at the unkindness of his friends, and over his own corruptions, which he felt working in him, and breaking forth in unbecoming language; and because of the hidings of the face of God from him: the word used in the Arabic language F9 חמרמרה "intumuit", V. L. Tigurine version; "fermentescit", Schultens. has the, signification of redness in it, as Aben Ezra and others observe; of... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 16:17

Not for any injustice in my hands ,.... Came all those afflictions and calamities upon him, which occasioned so much sorrow, weeping, mourning, and humiliation; he does not say there was no sin in him, not any in his heart, nor in his life, nor any iniquity done by him, he had acknowledged these things before, Job 7:20 ; but that there was nothing in his hands gotten in an unjust manner; he had taken away no man's property, nor injured him in the least in a private way; nor had he... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 16:18

O earth, cover not thou my blood ,.... This is an imprecation, wishing that if; he had been guilty of any capital crime, of such acts of injustice that he ought to be punished by the judge, and even to die for them, that his blood when spilt might not be received into the earth, but be licked up by dogs, or that he might have no burial or interment in the earth; and if he had committed such sins as might come under the name of blood, either the shedding of innocent blood, though that is so... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 16:19

Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven ,.... That is, God, who dwells in the heavens, where his throne is, and which is the habitation of his holiness, and from whence he beholds all the sons of men, and their actions, is the all seeing and all knowing Being; and therefore Job appeals to him as his witness, if he was guilty of the things laid to his charge, to bear witness against him, but if not to be a witness for him, which he believed he would, and desired he might: for my record... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 16:20

My friends scorn me ,.... Not that they scoffed at his afflictions and calamities, and at his diseases and disorders, that would have been very brutish and inhuman, but at his words, the arguments and reasons he made use of to defend himself with, see Job 12:4 ; but mine eye poureth out tears unto God ; in great plenty, because of his very great sorrows and distresses, both inward and outward; and it was his mercy, that when his friends slighted and neglected him, yea, bore hard... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 16:21

Oh that one might plead for a man with God ,.... That is, that one might be appointed and allowed to plead with God on his account; or that he be admitted to plead with God for himself; or however, that there might be a hearing of his case before God, and that he would decide the thing in controversy between him and his friends, when he doubted not but it would be given on his side: as a man pleadeth for his neighbour ; using great freedom, and powerful arguments, and having no dread... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 16:16

On my eyelids is the shadow of death - Death is now fast approaching me; already his shadow is projected over me. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 16:17

Not for any injustice - I must assert, even with my last breath, that the charges of my friends against me are groundless. I am afflicted unto death, but not on account of my iniquities. Also my prayer is pure - I am no hypocrite, God knoweth. read more

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