Job 16:6
in Job 16Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I hold back, how will it go away?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged; And though I forbear, what am I eased?
KJV
Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?
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This verse in Job 16
Commentary
7 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved
on Job 16:6-8
Speech brings no relief and silence brings none: "if I hold back, how will it go away". His body is the witness, "my frailty rises up and testifies against me". Barnes notes that the friends took wasting illness as proof of hidden sin, which chapter 1 denies.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
It would be easy for me to speak like this just as you did if I were in your condition. But now I am impeded by a pain which neither speech nor silence does not take away, and so he continues, "But what am I …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged,....
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 misconstrued as to be turned to the aggravation of my grief." 2.
He still holds fast his integrity, concerning which he appeals to God's righteous judgment from the unrighteous censures of his friends,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Though I speak - But it will be of no avail thus to speak; for reprehensions of your conduct will not serve to mitigate my sufferings.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged - “But for me, it makes now no difference whether I speak or am silent. My sufferings continue. If I attempt to vindicate myself before people, I am reproached; and equally so if I am silent. If I maintain my cause before God, it avails me nothing, for my sufferings continue. If I am silent, and submit without a complaint, they are the same. Neither silence, nor argument, nor entreaty, avail me before God or man. I am doomed to suffering.” What am I eased? - Margin. “Goeth from me.” Literally, “what goeth from me?” The sense is, that it all availed nothing.
The words behind it
9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אִֽם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| אֲ֭דַבְּרָה | ʾadaberah | I will speak | H1696 → | 1141 times |
| לֹא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יֵחָשֵׂ֣ךְ | yechasekh | it will be restrained | H2820 → | 28 times |
| כְּאֵבִ֑י | keevi | pain my | H3511 → | |
| וְ֝אַחְדְּלָ֗ה | veachdelah | and I will cease | H2308 → | 58 times |
| מַה־ | mah- | what? | H4100 → | 752 times |
| מִנִּ֥י | mini | from me | H4480 → | 1188 times |
| יַהֲלֹֽךְ׃ | yahalokh | will it go | H1980 → | 1546 times |
אִֽם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
אֲ֭דַבְּרָהI will speak
ʾadaberahH1696 →1141 times
לֹא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
יֵחָשֵׂ֣ךְit will be restrained
yechasekhH2820 →28 times
כְּאֵבִ֑יpain my
keeviH3511 →
וְ֝אַחְדְּלָ֗הand I will cease
veachdelahH2308 →58 times
מַה־what?
mah-H4100 →752 times
מִנִּ֥יfrom me
miniH4480 →1188 times
יַהֲלֹֽךְ׃will it go
yahalokhH1980 →1546 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 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
Job 10:1“I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
it leads to
- Job 7:11
Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
- 1 Kings 19:4
while he himself traveled on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life,…
- Numbers 11:15
If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now—if I have found favor in Your eyes—and let me not see my own wretchedness.”
- Job 9:21
Though I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life.
- Jonah 4:8
As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me…
- Job 7:11
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.