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1 Then Iob answered, and said,
2 I haue heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.
3 Shall vaine words haue an ende? or what emboldeneth thee, that thou answerest?
4 I also could speake as yee doe: if your soule were in my soules stead, I could heape vp words against you, and shake mine head at you.
5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the mouing of my lips should asswage your griefe.
6 Though I speake, my griefe is not asswaged: and though I forbeare; what am I eased?
7 But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate al my companie.
8 And thou hast filled mee with wrinckles, which is a witnesse against me: and my leannesse rising vp in me, beareth witnesse to my face.
9 He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth vpon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes vpon me.
10 They haue gaped vpon me with their mouth, they haue smitten me vpon the cheeke reprochfully, they haue gathered themselues together against mee.
11 God hath deliuered me to the vngodly, and turned me ouer into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my necke, and shaken me to pieces, and set me vp for his marke.
13 His archers compasse me round about, he cleaueth my reines asunder, and doeth not spare; he powreth out my gall vpon the ground.
14 He breaketh me with breach vpon breach, he runneth vpon me like a giant.
15 I haue sowed sackcloth vpon my skin, and defiled my horne in the dust.
16 My face is fowle with weeping, and on mine eye-lids is the shadow of death;
17 Not for any iniustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
18 O earth couer not thou my blood, and let my cry haue no place.
19 Also now, behold my witnesse is in heauen, and my record is on high.
20 My friends scorne me: but mine eye powreth out teares vnto God.
21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour.
22 When a few yeeres are come, then I shall goe the way whence I shall not returne.
Job reproves his friends. (1-5) He represents his case as deplorable. (6-16) Job maintains his innocency. (17-22)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.
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.
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.
Commentary by Matthew Henry, 1710.