Job 16:5

5 I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation from my lips would bring relief.^[a]

Job 16:5 Meaning and Commentary

Job 16:5

[But] I would strengthen you with my mouth
Comfort them with the words of his mouth; so God strengthens his people with strength in their souls, when he answers them with good and comfortable words; an angel strengthened Christ as man when in an agony, comforting him, suggesting comfortable things to him; so one saint may strengthen and comfort another when in distress, whether of soul or body; see ( Psalms 138:3 ) ( Luke 22:43 Luke 22:32 ) ; and thus Job had strengthened and comforted others, with his words in former times, as Eliphaz himself owns, ( Job 4:3 Job 4:4 ) and so he would again, were there a change in his circumstances, and objects presented:

and the moving of my lips should assuage [your grief]:
words uttered by him, which are done by the moving of the lips, should be such as would have a tendency to allay grief, to stop, restrain, forbid, and lessen sorrow; at least that it might not break out in an extravagant way, and exceed bounds, and that his friends might not be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.

Job 16:5 In-Context

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, [but I wouldn't].

5 I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation from my lips would bring relief.

6 Even if I speak, my suffering is not relieved, and if I hold back, what have I lost?

7 Surely He has now exhausted me. You have devastated my entire family.

Footnotes

• [a] Jb 4:4; Dt 3:28; Isa 35:3