Matthew Henry Commentary Job 16
Matthew Henry Commentary
Job 16
Matthew Henry Commentary
Job 16
"Then Job answered and said, I have heard many such things: Miserable comforters are ye all. Shall vain words have an end? Or what provoketh thee that thou answerest? 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. [But] I would strengthen you with my mouth, And the solace of my lips would assuage [your grief]." — Job 16:1-5 (ASV)
Eliphaz had represented Job's discourses as unprofitable and pointless; Job here gives Eliphaz's words the same characterization. Those who pass criticisms must expect to have them retorted; it is easy, it is endless, but what good does it do?
Angry answers stir up people's emotions but never convince their judgment nor set truth in a clear light.
What Job says of his friends is true of all creatures in comparison with God; sooner or later, we will be made to see and acknowledge that miserable comforters are they all. When under convictions of sin, terrors of conscience, or the arrests of death, only the blessed Spirit can comfort effectively; all others, without Him, do it miserably and to no purpose.
Whatever the sorrows of our fellow believers are, we ought, by sympathy, to make them our own; they may soon be our own.
"Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged; And though I forbear, what am I eased? But now he hath made me weary: Thou hast made desolate all my company. 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. 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. They have gaped upon me with their mouth; They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully: They gather themselves together against me. God delivereth me to the ungodly, And casteth me into the hands of the wicked. 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. His archers compass me round about; He cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; He poureth out my gall upon the ground. He breaketh me with breach upon breach; He runneth upon me like a giant. I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, And have laid my horn in the dust. My face is red with weeping, And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;" — Job 16:6-16 (ASV)
Here is a sorrowful representation of Job's grievances. What reason we have to bless God that we are not making such complaints! Even good men, when in great troubles, struggle not to entertain harsh thoughts of God. Eliphaz had represented Job as unhumbled under his affliction. 'No,' says Job, 'I know better things; the dust is now the fittest place for me.' In this he reminds us of Christ, who was a man of sorrows and pronounced those blessed that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
"Although there is no violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure. O earth, cover not thou my blood, And let my cry have no [resting] -place. Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, And he that voucheth for me is on high. My friends scoff at me: [But] mine eye poureth out tears unto God, That he would maintain the right of a man with God, And of a son of man with his neighbor! For when a few years are come, I shall go the way whence I shall not return." — Job 16:17-22 (ASV)
Job's condition was very deplorable; but he had the testimony of his conscience for him, that he never allowed himself in any gross sin. No one was ever more ready to acknowledge sins of infirmity. Eliphaz had charged him with hypocrisy in religion, but he specifies prayer, the great act of religion, and professes that in this he was pure, though not from all infirmity.
He had a God to go to, who, he doubted not, took full notice of all his sorrows. Those who pour out tears before God, though they cannot plead for themselves because of their defects, have a Friend to plead for them, even the Son of man, and on him we must ground all our hopes of acceptance with God. To die is to go the way from where we shall not return.
We must all of us, very certainly, and very shortly, go this journey. Should not then the Saviour be precious to our souls? And ought we not to be ready to obey and to suffer for his sake? If our consciences are sprinkled with his atoning blood, and testify that we are not living in sin or hypocrisy, when we go the way from where we shall not return, it will be a release from prison, and an entrance into everlasting happiness.
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