Job 16:11-21

11 God has turned me over to the ungodly and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.
12 All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target;
13 his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground.
14 Again and again he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior.
15 “I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and buried my brow in the dust.
16 My face is red with weeping, dark shadows ring my eyes;
17 yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.
18 “Earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry never be laid to rest!
19 Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.
20 My intercessor is my friend[a] as my eyes pour out tears to God;
21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.

Job 16:11-21 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 16

This chapter and the following contain Job's reply to the preceding discourse of Eliphaz, in which he complains of the conversation of his friends, as unprofitable, uncomfortable, vain, empty, and without any foundation, Job 16:1-3; and intimates that were they in his case and circumstances, tie should behave in another manner towards them, not mock at them, but comfort them, Job 16:4,5; though such was his unhappy case, that, whether he spoke or was silent, it was much the same; there was no alloy to his grief, Job 16:6; wherefore he turns himself to God, and speaks to him, and of what he had done to him, both to his family, and to himself; which things, as they proved the reality of his afflictions, were used by his friends as witnesses against him, Job 16:7,8; and then enters upon a detail of his troubles, both at the hands of God and man, in order to move the divine compassion, and the pity of his friends, Job 16:9-14; which occasioned him great sorrow and distress, Job 16:15,16; yet asserts his own innocence, and appeals to God for the truth of it, Job 16:17-19; and applies to him, and wishes his cause was pleaded with him, Job 16:20,21; and concludes with the sense he had of the shortness of his life, Job 16:22; which sentiment is enlarged upon in the following chapter.

Cross References 24

  • 1. S Job 9:24; Job 1:15,17
  • 2. S Job 9:17
  • 3. S Job 6:4; Lamentations 3:12
  • 4. S Job 3:23
  • 5. Job 20:24; Proverbs 7:23; Lamentations 3:13
  • 6. Job 9:17
  • 7. S Job 10:3; Joel 2:7
  • 8. S Genesis 37:34
  • 9. S Job 2:8
  • 10. ver 20; Psalms 6:6
  • 11. Job 2:7; Job 17:7; Job 30:17,30; Job 33:19; Isaiah 52:14
  • 12. Isaiah 55:7; Isaiah 59:6; Jeremiah 18:11; John 3:8
  • 13. S Job 6:28; S Job 10:7; Job 13:7; Isaiah 53:9; Zephaniah 3:13
  • 14. S Genesis 4:10; Isaiah 26:21
  • 15. Psalms 5:2; Psalms 18:6; Psalms 102:1; Psalms 119:169
  • 16. Job 19:24; Psalms 66:18-19; Hebrews 11:4
  • 17. S Genesis 31:50; S Romans 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 2:5
  • 18. Job 22:12; Job 42:2
  • 19. Job 19:27; Job 21:17; Job 25:2; Job 27:13; Job 31:2; Psalms 113:5; Isaiah 33:5; Isaiah 57:15; Isaiah 58:4; Isaiah 66:1; Mark 11:10
  • 20. S Romans 8:34
  • 21. John 15:15
  • 22. Lamentations 2:19
  • 23. S ver 16
  • 24. 1 Kings 8:45; Psalms 9:4; Psalms 140:12

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Or "My friends treat me with scorn"
Scripture quoted by permission.  Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.  NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica.  All rights reserved worldwide.