161 And Job made answer and said, 2 Such things have frequently come to my ears: you are comforters who only give trouble. 3 May words which are like the wind be stopped? or what is troubling you to make answer to them? 4 It would not be hard for me to say such things if your souls were in my soul's place; joining words together against you, and shaking my head at you: 5 I might give you strength with my mouth, and not keep back the comfort of my lips.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 16:1-5
Commentary on Job 16:1-5
(Read Job 16:1-5)
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.