Job 16

1 Y respondió Job, y dijo

2 Muchas veces he oído cosas como éstas; consoladores molestos sois todos vosotros

3 ¿Tendrán fin las palabras ventosas? O ¿qué es lo que te anima a responder

4 También yo hablaría como vosotros. Deseo que vuestra alma estuviera en lugar de la mía, que yo os tendría compañía en las palabras, y sobre vosotros movería mi cabeza

5 Pero yo os alentaría con mis palabras, y la consolación de mis labios detendría el dolor

6 Mas si hablo, mi dolor no cesa; y si dejo de hablar, no se aparta de mí

7 Pero ahora me ha fatigado; tú has asolado toda mi compañía

8 Tú me has arrugado; el testigo es mi delgadez, que se levanta contra mí para testificar en mi rostro

9 Su furor me arrebató, y me ha sido contrario; crujió sus dientes contra mí; contra mí aguzó sus ojos mi enemigo

10 Abrieron contra mí su boca; hirieron mis mejillas con afrenta; contra mí se juntaron todos

11 Me ha entregado Dios al mentiroso, y en las manos de los impíos me hizo temblar

12 Próspero estaba, y me desmenuzó; me arrebató por la cerviz, y me despedazó, y me puso por blanco suyo

13 Me cercaron sus flecheros, partió mis riñones, y no perdonó; mi hiel derramó por tierra

14 Me quebrantó de quebranto sobre quebranto; corrió contra mí como un gigante

15 Yo cosí cilicio sobre mi piel, y cargué mi cabeza de polvo

16 Mi rostro está enlodado con lloro, y mis párpados entenebrecidos

17 a pesar de no haber injusticia en mis manos, y de haber sido limpia mi oración

18 ¡Oh tierra! No cubras mi sangre, y no haya lugar donde se esconda mi clamor

19 Por cierto aun ahora en los cielos está mi testigo, y mi testimonio en las alturas

20 Mis disputadores son mis amigos; mas a Dios destilarán mis ojos

21 ¡Deseo que pudiera disputar el hombre con Dios, como puede con su prójimo

22 Mas los años contados vendrán, y yo andaré el camino por donde no volveré

Job 16 Commentary

Chapter 16

Job reproves his friends. (1-5) He represents his case as deplorable. (6-16) Job maintains his innocency. (17-22)

Verses 1-5 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.

Verses 6-16 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.

Verses 17-22 Job's condition was very deplorable; but he had the testimony of his conscience for him, that he never allowed himself in any gross sin. No one was ever more ready to acknowledge sins of infirmity. Eliphaz had charged him with hypocrisy in religion, but he specifies prayer, the great act of religion, and professes that in this he was pure, though not from all infirmity. He had a God to go to, who he doubted not took full notice of all his sorrows. Those who pour out tears before God, though they cannot plead for themselves, by reason of their defects, have a Friend to plead for them, even the Son of man, and on him we must ground all our hopes of acceptance with God. To die, is to go the way whence we shall not return. We must all of us, very certainly, and very shortly, go this journey. Should not then the Saviour be precious to our souls? And ought we not to be ready to obey and to suffer for his sake? If our consciences are sprinkled with his atoning blood, and testify that we are not living in sin or hypocrisy, when we go the way whence we shall not return, it will be a release from prison, and an entrance into everlasting happiness.

Chapter Summary

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.