Job 16

This chapter belongs to the second cycle of debate in the Book of Job. In Job 15, Eliphaz rebuked Job; in this chapter Job begins his reply, which continues through Job 17.

Outline

• Verses 1–5 Job calls his friends "miserable comforters," people who claim to console him but instead add to his distress. Were their positions reversed, he says, he too could speak as they do, but he would rather relieve their grief with words of comfort.
• Verses 6–11 Whether he speaks or keeps silent, his pain is not eased. Job laments that God has worn him out and tears at him like an enemy. People strike him on the cheek, and God has delivered him into the hands of the wicked.
• Verses 12–14 Job describes how God broke him while he was at ease, set him up as a target and shot arrows at him, and rushed upon him like a warrior.
• Verses 15–17 Clothed in sackcloth, with his horn (a symbol of strength and dignity) laid in the dust, he weeps, yet he maintains that there is no injustice in his hands and that his prayer is pure.
• Verses 18–22 Job cries out to the earth not to cover his blood. He then confesses that his witness and his record (one who vouches for him and testifies on his behalf) are in heaven, and he longs for someone to plead his case and set right the matter between God and man. The chapter closes with his words that he will soon go the way from which he shall not return.

Key Verses

• Job 16:2 "Miserable comforters are ye all." This verse is often cited to show that hasty explanations offer no comfort to those who suffer.
• Job 16:17 "Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure." This is a central verse in Job's assertion of his innocence.
• Job 16:19 "Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high." It is a confession of hope for a heavenly advocate even in the midst of despair (Job 16:19–21).

Characters and Places

• Job: The book's protagonist, who debates with his friends in the midst of his suffering.
• Job's three friends: Those whom Job addresses as "ye" in this chapter. The speaker in the preceding chapter was Eliphaz the Temanite.
• No specific place is mentioned in this chapter.

Points for Reflection

• Who is the heavenly witness? Interpretations of the witness in verse 19 differ. One view, which emphasizes the oneness of God, identifies the witness as God Himself; on this reading, Job appeals beyond the God who strikes him to the God who is just. Another view holds that the witness is a heavenly being who stands between God and Job, in contrast to Job 9:32–33, where Job laments that there is no daysman between them. Christian tradition has also read this verse in connection with the intercession of Christ (1 John 2:1–2; 1 Timothy 2:5–6). This, however, is an interpretation in the light of the New Testament; the text itself does not state it directly.
• Differences in translation: The first part of verse 20 is ambiguous in the Hebrew text. The Korean Revised Version, like the KJV, renders it "My friends scorn me," but some translations render it to mean "my intercessor is my friend."
• "Son of man" in verse 21: The Hebrew phrase here (rendered "a man" in the KJV) simply means "a human being." It should be distinguished from the title Jesus used of Himself in the Gospels.
• Connections with the New Testament: The cry in verse 18, "cover not thou my blood," recalls the blood of Abel crying out from the ground (Cain and Abel). The shaking of the head in verse 4 and the striking of the cheek in verse 10 are also sometimes read alongside the mockery Jesus endured at the cross (Matthew 27:39).