Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
Job Ch.16 / 42 Ch.s
JOB:16
* 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.