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Dhammapada · narration sample

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The Bible · 452 of 1189

Job 16

1.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 emboldeneth thee that thou answerest? 4. I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you. 5. But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.

6.Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: 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 filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face. 9. He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me. 10. They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me. 11. God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. 12. I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and 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 defiled my horn in the dust. 16. My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

17.Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure. 18. O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place. 19. Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high. 20. My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God. 21. O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour! 22. When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

Asked of Guide

Why does Job call his friends “miserable comforters” and say their words are vain?

Job calls them “miserable comforters” because their speeches accuse and minimize his suffering rather than soothe it; he says their “vain words” would end if they had his pain, implying their sympathy is theoretical, not real. In the chapter he contrasts their blaming rhetoric with what he would do: “I would strengthen you with my mouth,” showing he expects support, not judgment.

Job also shifts to a direct complaint against God, describing physical and social devastation—“He hath filled me with wrinkles…my leanness…beareth witness”—and insists his hands are clean and his prayer pure, aiming to have a heavenly witness for his case. This echoes the courtroom imagery in Exodus and Psalms where a righteous sufferer appeals to God as judge; see Psalm 35 for a similar plea for vindication.

Guide is the guide inside the Gnosis app, where every book on these shelves is free to read. Guide is the part you pay for — your guide has read all of them, and answers about the passage you’re actually on. Ask your guide your own question.