Job 16
OGCTODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION
2 I have heard words like that before;
the comfort you give is only torment.
3 Are you going to keep on talking forever?
Do you always have to have the last word?
4 If you were in my place and I in yours,
I could say everything you are saying.
I could shake my head wisely
and drown you with a flood of words.
5 I could strengthen you with advice
and keep talking to comfort you.
6 But nothing I say helps,
and being silent does not calm my pain.
7 You have worn me out, God;
you have let my family be killed.
8 You have seized me. You are my enemy. I am skin and bones,
and people take that as proof of my guilt.
9 In anger, God tears me limb from limb;
he glares at me with hate.
10 People sneer at me;
they crowd around me and slap my face.
11 God has turned me over to evil men. 12 I was living in peace,
but God took me by the throat
and battered me and crushed me.
God uses me for target practice
13 and shoots arrows at me from every side
arrows that pierce and wound me; and even then he shows no pity.
14 He wounds me again and again;
he attacks like a soldier gone mad with hate.
15 1 mourn and wear clothes made of sackcloth,
and I sit here in the dust defeated.
16 1 have cried until my face is red,
and my eyes are swollen and circled with shadows,
17 but I have not committed any violence,
and my prayer to God is sincere.
18 Earth, don-’t hide the wrongs done to me!
Don-’t let my call for justice be silenced!
19 There is someone in heaven
to stand up for me and take my side.
20 I want God to see my tears and hear my prayer. 21 I want someone to plead with God for me,
as a man pleads for his friend.
22 My years are passing now,
and I walk the road of no return.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 16:1-22
Job has four enemies. Who are they? Why call them enemies?
What is the meaning of my witness in heaven? Cf. Job 16:19.
Job says, I have heard it all before. When does repetition have meaning?
Job says of his friends that they are miserable, windy enemies. Why don-’t they leave?
The pronouns in verse four are in the plural form. What does this mean?
Job reveals the selfishness and pride of man in verse four. Explain.
Explain the scornful sarcasm of verse five.
Are there persons in hospitals near us who feel as Job?i.e., if I speak or am silent yet am I miserable. How can we help them?
What is the meaning of verse seven?
Job’s calamity is a witness against him. How so? Do we believe this principle today? Discuss.
Job pictures God as a ferocious animal. How does he expect God to react to all this?
There is no expressed subject in verse ten, but Job strongly infers the subject. Who are they? How are they described?
The Hebrew word for ungodly in Job 16:11 has an interesting meaning. What is it? Why used?
God is attacking Job. How? Through whom?
There is a very graphic mixing of the metaphors in Job 16:13. Explain figures used.
Job imagines his body to be like a fortress. What happens to him? Are giants involved? Cf. Job 16:14.
Isn-’t it extreme to suggest that sackcloth was actually sewn upon the skin? What is meant by reference to the horn? Cf. Job 16:15.
We might catch a hint as to the type of sickness from Job 16:16. What is it? The shadow of death is not accurate. Why?
Job rejects the possibility of his guilt. He teaches us something in this. What?
Why does Job request that his blood be not covered?
Who is Job’s witness as in Job 16:19? Isn-’t this a contradiction of previous descriptions? Discuss.
There is much comfort for many of us in Job 16:20. We know more than Job. Discuss.
Job 16:21 is one of the most profound verses in all the scriptures. Discuss its meaning.
To Job death was inevitable and final. What is it to us? Discuss.
Job 16:1-5
B. JOB’S TRIALVINDICATION OR? (Job 16:1, Job 17:16).
- 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 things: Miserable comforters are ye all.
3 Shall vain words have an end?
Or what provoketh thee that thou answerest?
4 I also could speak as ye do;
If your soul were in my soul’s stead. I could join words together against you, And shake my head at you.
5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth,
And the solace of my lips would assuage your grief.**
COMMENT 16:1-5
**Job 16:1-2**Job’s fourth reply continues the lamentation form and emphasizes the denunciation of enemies, who are his three friends and God. But suddenly in the midst of his response there is a sudden appeal to a witness in heaven, who will take up Job’s defense. But the speech ends, as do his previous responses, with consideration of approaching death and Sheol. He begins with statement of weariness. He has heard all of this unprofitable talk before. The A. V. translates -amal as miserable, which is a good rendering. Eliphaz has offered divine consolationJob 15:11. Using a cognate word, Job accuses them of being miserable consolers (wearisome is not strong enough).
**Job 16:3**Their comfort only serves to increase his suffering. He turns their talkJob 8:2; Job 15:2upon them by calling them purveyors of windy words, which only irritateJob 6:25.
**Job 16:4**In Job 16:4-5 the pronouns are plurals, thus Job is speaking to all three friends. Were our positions only reversed, I would have no difficulty playing a pious moralist, shaking my head in scandalized self-righteousness (Job, Soncino, p. 81). How Job actually conducted himself in the past in similar circumstances is projected in Job 4:3 ff. Job further encroaches on his self-righteous friend by crying out that he too could join words together as Eliphaz had doneJob 15:2 Off.[183] The imagery of the shaking of the head is associated with mockery and derision2 Kings 19:21; Isaiah 37:22; Psalms 22:8; Psalms 109:25; Lamentations 2:15; Eccl. 12:18; and Matthew 27:39. As in all cultures, body language can have different meanings in different circumstances.
[183] For critical analysis of this verse, see J. J. Finkelstein, JBL, 75, 1956, 328-31; and O. Loretz, CBQ, 23, 1961, 293ff, who suggests the translation I could also speak to you with mere noise.
Job 16:5Job continues to heap scornful sarcasm on the heads of his helpers. Mere words have no power to console. The word translated solace is a noun from the root used in Job 2:11. The original meaning of the verb was to be agitated. (Brown, Driver, Briggs, Lexicon, have quivering motion for the noun.) Time-honored cliches will not and cannot heal when removed from a sympathetic heart of the utterer.
Job 16:6-17
- Though innocent, he suffers the hostility of God and man. (Job 16:6-17)
TEXT 16:6-17
**6 Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged;
And though I forbear, what am I eased?
7 But now he hath made me weary:
Thou hast made desolate all my company.
8 And thou hast laid fast hold on me, **which **is a witness **against me:
**And my leanness riseth up against me, It testifieth to my face.
9 He hath torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me;
He hath gnashed upon me with his teeth: Mine adversary sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth;
They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully: They gather themselves together against me.
11 God delivereth me to the ungodly,
And casteth me into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, and he brake me asunder;
Yea, he hath taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces: He hath also set me up for his mark.
13 His archers compass me round about;
He cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; He poureth out my gall upon the ground.
14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach;
He runneth upon me like a giant.
15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin,
And have laid my horn in the dust.
16 My face is red with weeping,
And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
17 Although there is no violence In my hands,
And my prayer is pure.**
COMMENT 16:6-17
**Job 16:6**In Job 16:5, your grief is unexpressed in the Hebrew text. Here the noun is expressed and also a passive form of the verb. Job here presents his alternatives by forcibly depicting his dilemma. Neither vehement protestation nor silence would bring him healing. Both his physical and mental anguish tenaciously hold his soul in a state of unwelcome torture. Here we have mah as a negative rather than interrogativeJob 31:1. Job is not asking What? but rather strongly asserts that nothing eases his suffering.
**Job 16:7**The subject of this verse is probably my sorrow rather than God (he hath made A. V.) Though the second line does have thou hast made (note the change of person and shift to the third person in Job 16:8), the best sense seems to be my pain hath made me weary (the same verb is intransitive in Job 4:2, verb translated weary is used with sense of appall or devastate).[184] Some commentaries emend –‘adatimy companyto ra-‘atimy calamityat least this emendation has the dubious honor of making sense, which is not a characteristic of the Hebrew text as it now stands.
[184] See Dhorme, Job, p. 231, though his reconstruction is unnecessary.
**Job 16:8**Job’s calamity has seized (Heb. kamatseize, grasp tightly) him (A. V. laid fast hold) and is a witness against him. In the eyes of his friends, his suffering was evidence of his sin. The witness of his calamity has risen against me (Heb. phrase stands immediately after witness and should remain there in translation), my gauntness or leanness is evidence to men of my guiltPsa 59:12; Nahum 3:1; Hosea 7:3; and Hosea 10:13.
**Job 16:9**Job here pictures God as a ferocious animal tearing him apart with His teeth. The verb satam means to bear a grudge or sustain hate againstJob 30:21; Genesis 49:23; Genesis 50:15; Psalms 55:3. The hate was so intense that he gnashed his teethPsa 37:12in angerMat 8:12 and Acts 7:54. The imagery of sharpness comes from a verb used of sharpening a swordPsa 7:12. Here it means looking sharply as does an animal for its prey. God, like an animal pursuing its prey, is concentrating His hostility on Job.[185]
[185] For analysis of the phrase sharpeneth his eyes, see M. Dahood, Psalms, Vol. I, Anchor, note on Psalms 7:13; Vol. II third note on Psalms 89:44. His reference to Ugaritic cognate wordswhetted sword their eyes.
**Job 16:10**There is no expressed subject in this verse, but these are the people who like jackals follow God’s attack by their assaults. All the figures in this verse are human actions wide mouthdesire or greedJob 29:23; Isaiah 5:14. They insult or talk openly behind (struck meA. V. has smitten me) his back and mobilize[186] against him1 Kings 22:24; Micah 5:1; Matthew 5:39; Luke 6:29.
[186] D. W. Thomas, Journal of Semitic Studies, III, 1952, 47ff, for defense of military connotation, i.e., mobilize.
**Job 16:11Job says that God has delivered him to the ungodly (Heb. young boys-‘awil), perhaps a sarcastic denial of their status as wise men and supposed accumulation of wisdom because of their age. Their behavior toward Job is described in Job 30:9 ff. The word translated casteth is the verb ratah which means to wring out (see Brown, Driver, Briggs). He is asserting that God has cast him into the hands of wicked men who wring him out.
**Job 16:12**Suddenly and unexpectedly God attacks him. How? Through whom? This verse makes a couplet with Job 16:13 a, both emphasizing the archer and targetJob 6:4; Psalms 64:7; Lamentations 3:12. God is directing the attack on Job, though the volleys come from human archers.[187] He is the target1 Samuel 20:20.
[187] G. R. Driver, Vetus Testamentum, HI, 1955, 78.
**Job 16:13**The word for archersrabbimis also found in Jeremiah 50:29. Here we are faced with mixed metaphors. Job is a target; God shoots arrows at him. His reins is a metaphor of the most sensitive and vital part of the body, his kidneys. He slashes me open. He pours out my gall (used only here and stands for liver, i.e., seat of emotions in Hebrew psychology) upon the ground. In other words, God has dealt him a death blow.
**Job 16:14**Now Job metaphorically compares his body to that of a fortress which is being repeatedly assailedJob 30:14. He feels like a stronghold being stormed by warriors, not giants as A. V.
**Job 16:15**Here appears the same word as in Genesis 3:7 for sewed. Sackcloth is the symbol of mourning and was worn next to the body2 Kings 6:30. The sewing of it on his skin was a sign of permanent mourning. Literally the text says I have caused my horn to enter, which is a symbol of pride or strength[188]Psalms 75:5; Psalms 89:17; Psalms 92:10; and Psalms 112:9.
[188] Svi Rin, Biblische Zeitschrift, VII, 1963, 23, for Ugaritic evidence for his translation I shall lower, or dip my horn in the dust.
**Job 16:16**Involuntary weeping is a symptom of leprosy, which could be Job’s physical ailment. His face is red, i.e., inflamed (verb chamar) from crying. Eyelids stand for his eyes. The word salmawet should not be translated as the shadow of death as in A. V., but possibly as the blackness around the eyes of a sick person. There is no allusion to death in this verse, so the translation should conform to the basic theme of the verse.
**Job 16:17**This cruel suffering has come upon me, though I have done no violenceIsa 53:7. He completely rejects the possibility of his guilt; thus he once more asserts that his suffering is unmerited. When the hands are unclean, prayer is unacceptable to GodIsa 1:15; Job 11:13 ff. In Job 31:7 he affirms that his hands are clean, and here that his prayer is pure. Job’s last possession is the certainty of his integrity before God.
Job 16:18-22
- He must be vindicated by a heavenly witness. (Job 16:18-22)
TEXT 16:18-22
**18 O earth, cover not thou my blood,
And let my cry have no resting-place.
19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,
And he that voucheth for me is on high.
20 My Mends scoff at me:
But mine eye poureth out tears unto God,
21 That he would maintain the right of a man with God,
And of a son of man with his neighbor!
22 For when a few years are come,
I shall go the way whence I shall not return.**
COMMENT 16:18-22
**Job 16:18**Shed blood cries out for vengeanceGen 4:10; Genesis 37:26; Isaiah 26:21; Ezekiel 24:8, hence the effort to hide it in the dust. Job desires that his blood remain uncovered as a protest and appeal to God for vindication. Dahood presents strong evidence that the A. V. rendering of resting place should be burial place. Here it is improbable that Job thinks of vindication while still alive. The passage (Job 16:18, Job 17:9) shows a very important development towards Job 19:24 ff.
**Job 16:19**Exegetically and theologically, it would be very difficult, even impossible, to deny that the witness in heaven is Job’s mediator, redeemer (or VindicatorS. Terrien in Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. Ill, 1025-1029), even though God is already Job’s Accuser, Judge, and ExecutionerJob 9:33; Job 19:25; and Job 33:23-24.
**Job 16:20**My scorners (melisay) are my friends (Rowley, p. 150), so as I turn from them, I turn to God with tears streaming down my face. The above word for friend (re-‘a) is used of Eliphaz, Bildad, and ZopharJob 2:11; Job 32:3; Job 42:10; and Jesus in John 15.
**Job 16:21**The one to whom Job turns is surely the same person as the witness of the preceding verse, and the vindicator of Job 9:33 and Job 19:25 (see bibliography on this verse). This is one of the most profound verses in all scripture. Job appeals to God, who had indicted him with cruel agony and as the God of his faith the object of Job’s faith is also Lord of justice and righteousness, the one who will maintain the right (verb from which the word umpire is derived in Job 9:33). Now he pleads that God might present the case to himself. (Note the significance of the Incarnation in explaining the wonderful things here disclosed.) A son of man simply means a person, i.e., Job. Neighbor comes from the same word that is translated friend in Job 16:20. The neighbor is not God, as some suggest, rather a fellow human being.
**Job 16:22**Job here lapses into the thought of the inevitability and finality of death that has been expressed beforeJob 7:9 ff and Job 10:21.[189]
[189] M. Dahood, Biblica, 48, 1967, 429.