Job 16:2

Exordium, or introductory strophe Job repudiates the commonplace, cheap, and heartless consolation of his friends, Job 16:2-5.

2. Miserable comforters Literally, Comforters of trouble: sorrow-bringing comforters. The Hebrew shows an allusion to Job 15:11, “the consolations of God.” Kindred experience, keenness of sensibility, a consciousness of our own liabilities, sincerity of heart and purity of being, are elements essential to the exercise of the fullest power of sympathy. As sin gains power over a man, it lessens his sympathy for the woes of others for sin means selfishness living for self. Cold words are a mockery to a sorrowing heart. They are flakes of snow to an ice-bound pool. “Profound sympathies are always in association with keen sensibilities.” The comforter must feel his own liability to overwhelming distress.