Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You

Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You
16 Then Job answered and said:

2 “I have heard many such things;
    miserable comforters are you all.
3 Shall windy words have an end?
    Or what provokes you that you answer?
4 I also could speak as you do,
    if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
    and shake my head at you.
5 I could strengthen you with my mouth,
    and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

6 “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
    and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
7 Surely now God has worn me out;
    he has made desolate all my company.
8 And he has shriveled me up,
    which is a witness against me,
and my leanness has risen up against me;
    it testifies to my face.
9 He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;
    he has gnashed his teeth at me;
    my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
10 Men have gaped at me with their mouth;
    they have struck me insolently on the cheek;
    they mass themselves together against me.
11 God gives me up to the ungodly
    and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
    he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his target;
13     his archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare;
    he pours out my gall on the ground.
14 He breaks me with breach upon breach;
    he runs upon me like a warrior.
15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin
    and have laid my strength in the dust.
16 My face is red with weeping,
    and on my eyelids is deep darkness,
17 although there is no violence in my hands,
    and my prayer is pure.

​18 “O earth, cover not my blood,
    and let my cry find no resting place.
19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,
    and he who testifies for me is on high.
20 My friends scorn me;
    my eye pours out tears to God,
21 that he would argue the case of a man with God,
    as a son of man does with his neighbor.
22 For when a few years have come
    I shall go the way from which I shall not return.

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Job is upset that once again his "friends" have made accusations against him instead of remaining silent as he requested.  He asks them if their "wind" had no end to it and what he had said to them that would provoke them to answer--Job had only challenged God and asked God to answer him, not these men, and they certainly are not answering as prophets of God (though they may think they are).

Job then says that he too could use his words to wound or to heal them if he desired, but none of that will change the way that he feels and the pain he is going through.  The only conversation he needs to have right now is with God.  God has worn him out and pushed him to his limit of what his is physically, emotionally, and mentally able to endure.  He feels he has experienced the wrath of God and the scorn of men.  There is no escape and Job feels like he is constantly in mourning, suffering and pain--though Job still persistently pleads his case that he is innocent.

Job then gets a little morbid and looks forward to death as a relief from this anguish, but he cries out to the earth to remember his innocent blood.  But then again, Job makes an interesting statement--"My witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high."  He has just charged God with pouring out His wrath on Job unjustly, so who is this witness that Job says is in heaven that will plead his case to God for Him?  We know that it is none other than Christ, but is it possible that Job understood that?  Most likely not, but the Spirit seems to give Job this understanding that God will let Job's case be heard and there will be one who sees and will open the books and be a fair and righteous Judge, and He will not let the guilty go unpunished, but He will also defend the innocent.  All Job can conclude is that he doesn't have much longer to live--at most a few years if God wishes to continue to drag this out, but there will be a day very soon when he will "depart" and never return.  Job's hope is that somehow in death he will receive the peace and justice that he did not receive in this moment (and maybe even that he would be surrounded by better friends).