9 His anger teareth and pursueth me; he gnasheth with his teeth against me; [as] mine adversary he sharpeneth his eyes at me.
With profane jesters for bread, they have gnashed their teeth against me.
All thine enemies open their mouth against thee, they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed [her] up; this is forsooth the day that we looked for: we have found, we have seen [it].
And it increaseth: thou huntest me as a fierce lion; and ever again thou shewest thy marvellous power upon me. Thou renewest thy witnesses before me and increasest thy displeasure against me; successions [of evil] and a time of toil are with me.
Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger, shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of its place?
The wicked plotteth against the righteous, and gnasheth his teeth against him.
Come and let us return unto Jehovah: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
And thou puttest my feet in the stocks, and markest all my paths; thou settest a bound about the soles of my feet; --
Now consider this, ye that forget +God, lest I tear in pieces, and there be no deliverer.
For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah. I, I will tear and go away; I will carry off, and there shall be none to deliver.
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.