Job 16:2
in Job 16“I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I have heard many such things: Miserable comforters are ye all.
KJV
I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.
⋯
This verse in Job 16
Commentary
11 notes on this verseI have heard many such things - These sayings of the ancients are not strange to me; but they do not apply to my case: ye see me in affliction; ye should endeavor to console me. This ye do not; and yet ye pretend to do it! Miserable comforters are ye all.
This site's exposition
Then Job answered
on Job 16:1-5
Job opens his reply by naming the friends outright, "miserable comforters are you all", the book's only use of the phrase and his plainest verdict. He chooses the harder path instead, "I would encourage you with my mouth", naming the comfort he needed and did not receive.
This site's exposition
miserable comforters are you all
Job answers the claim of 15:11, where Eliphaz had called his speeches the consolations of God. Barnes points back to 13:4 and notes that the friends came to condole with him and have only irritated him. Their comfort adds to the trouble.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
Since Eliphaz speaks so, as if the matter were of extraordinary importance, and talks as if his speech derived from the wisdom of the ancestors, Job also resumes the argument he had used at the beginning. Is what you say not evident, he says? Therefore, since you speak superficially and utter what comes to your mind without checking your words, do not be annoyed with me if I express the thoughts of my mind.
You are "comforters" but very wicked ones. No word of yours is for the good, but they are all for the bad. You teach, you give advice, and you propose not how ordeals must be avoided, but how [new] ordeals will be obtained from affliction! …
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XIII · Written before 604.
proposed
Ver. 2. I have heard many such things. This is found to be a peculiar way with the wicked, viz. to urge their own bad points slanderously against the good, before they are themselves truly accused of them; and while they dread to be reproached for the things which they do, they testify that the righteous who withstand their wickednesses commit the same.
Eliphaz had spoken harshly against Job in his answer, and so Job accuses him of unfitting consolation in the beginning of his speech. First, because both he and his friends frequently repeat the same things and so he says, "I have often heard such things," …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Such things - These things are but vulgar and trivial. And so are all creatures, to a soul under deep conviction of sin, or the arrest of death.
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
I have heard many such things,....
When we are under convictions of sin, terrors of conscience, and the arrests of death, it is only the blessed Spirit that can comfort effectually; all others, without him, do it miserably, and sing songs to a heavy heart, to no purpose.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
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.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| שָׁמַ֣עְתִּי | shama'ti | I have heard | H8085 → | 1159 times |
| כְאֵ֣לֶּה | kheeleh | like these [things] | H428 → | 746 times |
| רַבּ֑וֹת | rabot | many | H7227 → | 454 times |
| מְנַחֲמֵ֖י | menachamei | [are] comforters of | H5162 → | 108 times |
| עָמָ֣ל | ʾamal | trouble | H5999 → | 55 times |
| כֻּלְּכֶֽם׃ | kulekhem | all of you | H3605 → | 5413 times |
שָׁמַ֣עְתִּיI have heard
shama'tiH8085 →1159 times
כְאֵ֣לֶּהlike these [things]
kheelehH428 →746 times
רַבּ֑וֹתmany
rabotH7227 →454 times
מְנַחֲמֵ֖י[are] comforters of
menachameiH5162 →108 times
עָמָ֣לtrouble
ʾamalH5999 →55 times
כֻּלְּכֶֽם׃all of you
kulekhemH3605 →5413 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
James 1:19My beloved brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,
it leads to
- Proverbs 17:27
A man of knowledge restrains his words, and a man of understanding maintains a calm spirit.
- Proverbs 21:23
He who guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from distress.
- Proverbs 14:29
A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man promotes folly.
- Proverbs 10:19
When words are many, sin is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.
- Proverbs 18:13
He who answers a matter before he hears it—this is folly and disgrace to him.
- Proverbs 17:27
Through
Job 6:6Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the white of an egg?
it leads to
- Job 34:3
For the ear tests words as the mouth tastes food.
- Job 6:30
Is there iniquity on my tongue? Can my mouth not discern malice?
- Colossians 4:6
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
- Job 34:3
About Job
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIII; Hesychius of Jerusalem, HOMILIES ON JOB 19.16.2B; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 16:1-2; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.