Job stands his ground

Here is another volley fired by Job at his friends, not so much with malice, but rather to set the record straight.   He calls them "miserable comforters" - wouldn't we like to have friends like that? 


Job says that if his position was reversed, he would act as a comforter to his friends. Then he describes how tired he is of this situation and the debate with his friends. Once again he describes God as the one punishing him. Yet in the midst of attributing such punishments to God, and knowing his innocence, he continues to cry and plead with God. This is because Job also knows that he has an advocate in Heaven (hinting at our Lord Jesus), as he says " Surely even now my witness is in heaven, And my evidence is on high."




Job 16
Job Reproaches His Pitiless Friends
 ¹ Then Job answered and said:
 ² “I have heard many such things;
      Miserable comforters are you all!
 ³ Shall words of wind have an end?
      Or what provokes you that you answer?
 ⁴ I also could speak as you do,
      If your soul were in my soul’s place.
      I could heap up words against you,
      And shake my head at you;
 ⁵ But I would strengthen you with my mouth,
      And the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief.
 ⁶ “ Though I speak, my grief is not relieved;
      And if I remain silent, how am I eased?
 ⁷ But now He has worn me out;
      You have made desolate all my company.
 ⁸ You have shriveled me up,
      And it is a witness against me;
      My leanness rises up against me
      And bears witness to my face.
 ⁹ He tears me in His wrath, and hates me;
      He gnashes at me with His teeth;
      My adversary sharpens His gaze on me.
 ¹⁰ They gape at me with their mouth,
      They strike me reproachfully on the cheek,
      They gather together against me.
 ¹¹ God has delivered me to the ungodly,
      And turned me over to the hands of the wicked.
 ¹² I was at ease, but He has shattered me;
      He also has taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces;
      He has set me up for His target,
 ¹³ His archers surround me.
      He pierces my heart^[a] and does not pity;
      He pours out my gall on the ground.
 ¹⁴ He breaks me with wound upon wound;
      He runs at me like a warrior.^[b]
 15 “I have sewn sackcloth over my skin,
      And laid my head^[c] in the dust.
 ¹⁶ My face is flushed from weeping,
      And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
 ¹⁷ Although no violence is in my hands,
      And my prayer is pure.
 ¹⁸ “O earth, do not cover my blood,
      And let my cry have no resting place!
 ¹⁹ Surely even now my witness is in heaven,
      And my evidence is on high.
 ²⁰ My friends scorn me;
      My eyes pour out tears to God.
 ²¹ Oh, that one might plead for a man with God,
      As a man pleads for his neighbor!
 ²² For when a few years are finished,
      I shall go the way of no return.