Morning Bible Study: Job 16:6-16

6 If I speak, my suffering is not relieved,
and if I hold back, does any of it leave me?
7 Surely he has now exhausted me.
You have devastated my entire family.
8 You have shriveled me up—it has become a witness;
my frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.
9 His anger tears at me, and he harasses me.
He gnashes his teeth at me.
My enemy pierces me with his eyes.
10 They open their mouths against me
and strike my cheeks with contempt;
they join themselves together against me.
11 God hands me over to the unjust;
he throws me to the wicked.
12 I was at ease, but he shattered me;
he seized me by the scruff of the neck
and smashed me to pieces.
He set me up as his target;
13 his archers surround me.
He pierces my kidneys without mercy
and pours my bile on the ground.
14 He breaks through my defenses again and again;
he charges at me like a warrior.
15 I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;
I have buried my strength in the dust.
16 My face has grown red with weeping,
and darkness covers my eyes,

Commentary
(the following is from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary, 1706 -- www.christianity.com)

"Here is a doleful 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, have much ado not to entertain hard 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."

Morning Bible Study: Job 16:1-5

Job’s Reply to Eliphaz
16:1 Then Job answered:
2 I have heard many things like these.
You are all miserable comforters.
3 Is there no end to your empty words?
What provokes you that you continue testifying?
4 If you were in my place I could also talk like you.
I could string words together against you
and shake my head at you.
5 Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth,
and the consolation from my lips would bring relief.

Commentary
(the following is from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary, 1706 -- www.christianity.com)
 
"Eliphaz had represented Job's discourses as unprofitable, and nothing to the purpose; Job here gives his the same character. Those who pass censures, must expect to have them retorted; it is easy, it is endless, but what good does it do? Angry answers stir up men's passions, but never convince their judgments, nor set truth in a clear light. 

What Job says of his friends is true of all creatures, in comparison with God; one time or other we shall be made to see and own 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 effectually; all others, without him, do it miserably, and to no purpose. 

Whatever our brethren's sorrows are, we ought by sympathy to make them our own; they may soon be so."