Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Job
Book: Job
Chapter: 16
Overview:
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.