6 If I say what is in my mind, my pain becomes no less: and if I keep quiet, how much of it goes from me?
I have been troubled and in fear of death from the time when I was young; your wrath is hard on me, and I have no strength. The heat of your wrath has gone over me; I am broken by your cruel punishments. They are round me all the day like water; they have made a circle about me. You have sent my friends and lovers far from me; I am gone from the memory of those who are dear to me.
<To the chief music-maker. After Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A Psalm.> I was crying to God with my voice; even to God with my voice, and he gave ear to me. In the day of my trouble, my heart was turned to the Lord: my hand was stretched out in the night without resting; my soul would not be comforted. I will keep God in memory, with sounds of grief; my thoughts are troubled, and my spirit is overcome. (Selah.) You keep my eyes from sleep; I am so troubled that no words come. My thoughts go back to the days of the past, to the years which are gone. The memory of my song comes back to me in the night; my thoughts are moving in my heart; my spirit is searching with care. Will the Lord put me away for ever? will he be kind no longer? Is his mercy quite gone for ever? has his word come to nothing? Has God put away the memory of his pity? are his mercies shut up by his wrath? (Selah.)
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 16
Commentary on Job 16 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 16
This chapter begins Job's reply to that discourse of Eliphaz which we had in the foregoing chapter; it is but the second part of the same song of lamentation with which he had before bemoaned himself, and is set to the same melancholy tune.
Job 16:1-5
Both Job and his friends took the same way that disputants commonly take, which is to undervalue one another's sense, and wisdom, and management. The longer the saw of contention is drawn the hotter it grows; and the beginning of this sort of strife is as the letting forth of water; therefore leave it off before it be meddled with. Eliphaz had represented Job's discourses as idle, and unprofitable, and nothing to the purpose; and Job here gives his the same character. Those who are free in passing such censures must expect to have them retorted; it is easy, it is endless: but cui bono?-what good does it do? It will stir up men's passions, but will never convince their judgments, nor set truth in a clear light. Job here reproves Eliphaz,
Job 16:6-16
Job's complaint is here as bitter as any where in all his discourses, and he is at a stand whether to smother it or to give it vent. Sometimes the one and sometimes the other is a relief to the afflicted, according as the temper or the circumstances are; but Job found help by neither, v. 6.
Here is a doleful representation of Job's grievances. O what reason have we to bless God that we are not making such complaints! He complains,
Job 16:17-22
Job's condition was very deplorable; but had he nothing to support him, nothing to comfort him? Yes, and he here tells us what it was.