Table of Contents
Job 16
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.
Notes
Cross Reference
Concordance
Commentary
Rashi
Verse 3
<html><b>Job’s Reply</b><br><b>will bring clarity to you</b> Heb. ימרצך. Your mouth will make you evaluate to think clear words with proper basis.</html>
Verse 4
<html><b>could speak like you</b> I know how to chide as you do. <b>if your soul were</b> in pain instead of my soul, I too would join words together against you and shake my head at you in your cry, and encourage you with my mouth, saying, “Be still, have courage, and endure your sufferings,” just as you are saying to me.</html>
Verse 5
<html><b>and the movement of my lips</b> which I move and [with which I] complain now and cry, would then stop, and I would no longer cry or lament, but now…</html>
Verse 6
<html><b>Should I speak etc.</b></html>
Verse 7
<html><b>you have silenced</b> Heb. השמות, you have silenced, like (Dan. 4:16), “was appalled (אשתומם),” and like (Jer. 2:12), “O heavens, be astonished (שמו).” Be silent and wonder.</html>
Verse 8
<html><b>You have shriveled me up; it has become a witness</b> You have shriveled me up and blackened me for a witness, for it has become a witness to my iniquity, to accuse me.</html>
Verse 9
<html><b>My Adversary</b> Satan is the adversary. <b>sharpens</b> Heb. ילטוש, sharpens, like (Gen. 4:22), “who sharpened (לטש) every instrument etc.”</html>
Verse 10
<html><b>They open their mouth at me</b> Heb. פערו, they open, like (Isa. 5:14), “and opened (ופערה) its mouth.” <b>they assemble</b> Heb. יתמלאון, they gather, and there are many similar words in Scripture, e.g. (Jer. 12:6), “have called a gang (מלא) after you”; (Isa. 31:4), “although a band (מלא) of shepherds gather against him,” but it does not deviate from its original meaning because every filling (מלוי) is a gathering together.</html>
Verse 11
<html><b>God delivers me to a fool</b> The Holy One, blessed be He, delivered me to a fool, a scorner, a mocker, to be scornful of me. <b>and heals me through the hands of the wicked</b> Heb. ירטני. The bandage of His consolations and my healing He delivered to the wicked, who only provoke. Another explanation: יַרְטֵנִי is like יַרְצֵנִי, He placates me, an expression of placating and consolation</html>
Verse 12
<html><b>but he crumbled me to pieces</b> Heb. ויפרפני. That fool [crumbled me]. [It is] an expression of crumbs (פרורין). <b>and shattered me</b> Heb. ויפצפצני, an expression of something being broken into many fragments with a hard blow, like (Jer. 13:14), “And I will dash them (ונפצתים), one against the other”; (Ps. 137:90), “and dash (ונפץ) your little ones against the rock. “</html>
Verse 13
<html><b>His archers</b> רביו, the one who shoots his arrows, as in (Gen. 21:20), “and he became an archer (רבה קשת).” <b>my gall</b> Heb. מְרֵירָתִי, my gall.</html>
Verse 15
<html><b>my scab</b> Heb. גלדי, a dry wound that forms a crust, and [in] the language of the Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 27b): He scraped it (the shofar) down to a thin crust (גלדו). <b>and sullied</b> Heb. ועללתי, and I sullied, like (Jud. 19:25), “and abused (ויתעללו) her,” an expression of disgrace and abasement, and like (Lam. 3:51), “sullies (עוללה) my soul.” <b>my radiance</b> Heb. קרני, my radiance, an expression of (Habakkuk 3:4): “rays of light (קרנים) came to them from his hand.”</html>
Verse 16
<html><b>became shriveled</b> Heb. חמרמרו, like (Chullin 3:3), “and its internal organs became shriveled (ונחמרו),” in the language of the Mishnah. Similarly (Lam. 1:20), “my intestines have become shriveled (חמרמרו).” <b>the shadow of death</b> it became darkened from weeping and tears.</html>
Verse 17
<html><b>and my prayer is pure</b> I did not curse my friend nor did I think any evil against him.</html>
Verse 18
<html><b>and let there be no place</b> in the earth to absorb my cry, but it should ascend to heaven.</html>
Verse 19
<html><b>behold my Witness is in heaven</b> My Creator, Who knows my ways.</html>
Verse 20
<html><b>pours out</b> Heb. דלפה, tears and sprays tears, an expression of dripping (דלוף).</html>
Verse 21
<html><b>Would that a man could reason</b> If only He would do this for me, that He would give me a place so that a man could reason with God, to liken the two contentions: the contention of man with his Maker, and the contention of man with his fellow.</html>
Verse 22
<html><b>For numbered [years]</b> The limited number of the days of my life. <b>will come</b> Will arrive, and then I will go on a way from which I will not return.</html>