UNROLL
Dusk at the gray ash heap: a small wrapped man seen from behind lifts his head toward a calm deep-blue sky with one first star, his three friends a little apart with their backs half turned and the plain flat-topped wall dark beyond.

The Book of

Job 16

Job answers, round two. He has just been told his own mouth condemns him. He stops looking at his friends and looks up.

22 verses≈ 3 min2 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1–3The testBlameless, stripped of everything, and his cry
  2. 4–14Round oneThe friends speak; Job answers
  3. 15–21Round twoMy Redeemer livesChapter 16
  4. 22–31Round threeThen wisdom, and Job's last defense
  5. 32–37ElihuA younger voice
  6. 38–41The LORD speaksOut of the whirlwind
  7. 42The endJob prays and is restored

Job Decries His Comforters

Job
Job

Then Job answered:

“I have heard many things like these;

miserable comforters are you all.

Is there no end to your long-winded speeches?

What provokes you to continue testifying?

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Job

I could also speak like you

if you were in my place;

I could heap up words against you

and shake my head at you.

But I would encourage you with my mouth,

and the consolation of my lips would bring relief.

Reflect

The consolation of my lips

Job says that if they were in his place, “the consolation of my lips would bring relief.” What has actually brought you relief in a hard time? Who needs that from you this week?

Job

Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved,

and if I hold back, how will it go away?

Surely He has now exhausted me;

You have devastated all my family.

You have bound me, and it has become a witness;

my frailty rises up and testifies against me.

His anger has torn me and opposed me;

He gnashes His teeth at me.

My adversary pierces me with His eyes.

Job
An old fieldstone sheepfold at storm-dark dusk, its wall broken through in gap after gap with stones spilled outward, no sheep and no person, under a heavy but calm darkening sky.

They open their mouths against me

and strike my cheeks with contempt;

they join together against me.

God has delivered me to unjust men;

He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.

I was at ease, but He shattered me;

He seized me by the neck and crushed me.

He has set me up as His target;

His archers surround me.

He pierces my kidneys without mercy

and spills my gall on the ground.

He breaks me with wound upon wound;

He rushes me like a mighty warrior.

0:30

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Job

Question

Quick question

A small, hard detail.

What did Job say he had sewn over his skin?

Job
Night: a tiny wrapped figure sits at the foot of a vast clear sky of stars over the bare ground of the ash heap, nothing in the sky but stars.

O earth, do not cover my blood;

may my cry for help never be laid to rest.

Even now my witness is in heaven,

and my advocate is on high.

Job

Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high.

Job 16:19

Job
Job

My friends are my scoffers

as my eyes pour out tears to God.

Oh, that a man might plead with God

as he pleads with his neighbor!

Job

For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.

Pray

Pray

Thank God that He hears the cry. Pray for all whose comforters have failed them, and for those who can say only that their eyes “pour out tears.” Give thanks for the One who pleads for us. Ask to sit with the hurting and speak little.

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Job 16

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A verse to carry with you

Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high.

Job 16:19

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