Job 16:5

5 I could strengthen you with advice and keep talking to comfort you.

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 Are you going to keep on talking forever? Do you always have to have the last word?
4 If you were in my place and I in yours, I could say everything you are saying. I could shake my head wisely and drown you with a flood of words.
5 I could strengthen you with advice and keep talking to comfort you.
6 But nothing I say helps, and being silent does not calm my pain.
7 You have worn me out, God; you have let my family be killed.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.