Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Job 16:6
(6) Though I speak . . .—“I cannot but reply, though to reply gives me no relief.” read more
(6) Though I speak . . .—“I cannot but reply, though to reply gives me no relief.” read more
(7) But now he hath made me weary.—He turns again, in his passionate plaint, to God, whom he alternately speaks of in the third person and addresses in the second. “Thou hast made desolate all my company,” by destroying all his children and alienating the hearts or his friends. read more
(8) Witness against me.—As in Job 10:17. The wrinkles in his body, caused by the disease, were a witness against him; and certainly, in the eyes of his friends, they furnished unquestionable proof of his guilt. read more
(9) He teareth me in his wrath.—Terrible as the language is that Job has used against God, he seems here almost to exceed it, for he calls Him his adversary. It is hardly possible not to understand the expression of God, for though he immediately speaks of his friends, yet just afterwards he openly mentions God. read more
(11) The ungodly and the wicked are the terms he retorts upon his friends, and they have certainly earned them. Now follows— read more
(12) I was at ease.—A highly poetical passage, in which Job becomes, as it were, a St. Sebastian for the arrows of God. It is hardly possible to conceive a more vivid picture of his desolate condition under the persecuting hand of the Almighty. read more
Job 16:2 In no respect was Mrs. Grote's knowledge of the human heart more apparent than in her intercourse with a mariner. With the unfailing freshness she put into all she said, she called herself 'a good affliction woman'. In the first place she admitted the reality of the trial, without which no one attempting to help no matter in what can be either just or kind. Then she dealt in no commonplaces on any subject in the world, least of all on that of deep grief. She knew that nothing could... read more
XIV."MY WITNESS IN HEAVEN"Job 16:1-22; Job 17:1-16Job SPEAKSIF it were comforting to be told of misery and misfortune, to hear the doom of insolent evildoers described again and again in varying terms, then Job should have been comforted. But his friends had lost sight of their errand, and he had to recall them to it."I have heard many such things: Afflictive comforters are ye all. Shall vain words have an end?"He would have them consider that perpetual harping on one string is but a sober... read more
CHAPTERS 16-17 Job’s Reply to Eliphaz 1. Miserable comforters are ye all (Job 16:1-5 ) 2. Oh God! Thou hast done it! (Job 16:6-14 ) 3. Yet I look to Thee (Job 16:15-22 ) 4. Trouble upon trouble; self-pity (Job 17:1-12 ) 5. Where is now my hope? (Job 17:13-16 ) Job 16:1-5 . How masterfully he meets their wrong accusations and how he brings forth his suffering afresh, yet always with that horrible nightmare, God is not for me, but against me! Such things Eliphaz spoke he had heard... read more
John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Job 16:1-22
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.2. The friends can do nothing but repeat their exasperating commonplaces. 3. Shall vain words, etc.] i.e. ’will you never stop?’5. Job would have acted very differently (Job 4:3-4; 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... read more