Job 16:5

_BUT I WOULD STRENGTHEN YOU WITH MY MOUTH, AND THE MOVING OF MY LIPS SHOULD ASSWAGE YOUR GRIEF._ Strengthen with ... mouth - bitter irony. In allusion to Eliphaz' boasted "consolations" (Job 15:11). Opposed to strengthening with the heart and in act - i:e., with real consolation. Translate, 'I also (like you) could strengthen with the mouth' - i:e., with heartless talk-`and the moving of my lips (mere lip-comfort) could console'-in the same fashion, as you do. Cf. Job 16:6 (Umbreit). "Hearty counsel" (Proverbs 27:9, "Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel") is the opposite....

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....

Verse Job 16:5. _I WOULD STRENGTHEN YOU WITH MY MOUTH_] Mr. _Good_ translates thus: - "With my own mouth will I overpower you, Till the quivering of my lips shall fail;" for which rendering he contends in his learned notes. This translation is countenanced by the _Septuagint, Syriac_, and _Arabic_ versions....

(But I would strengthen you with my mouth With that which proceeds from the mouth - words. AND THE MOVING OF MY LIPS - My speaking - implying that it would have been done in a mild, gentle, kind manner - so that the lips would appear just to move. Others, however, have given a different interpretation. Thus, Dr. Good renders it: “With my own mouth will I overpower you, Till the quivering of my lips shall fall.” But the common interpretation is to be preferred. The word rendered “moving” ניד _nı̂yd_ is from נוּד _nûd_ - “to move,” “agitate,” and hence, denotes “motion.” It denotes here the motion of the lips when we speak. Gesenius renders it, “consolation,” “comfort” - because this is express

EXPOSITION Job answers the second speech of Eliphaz in a discourse which occupies two (short) chapters, and is thus not much more lengthy than the speech of his antagonist. His tone is very despairing. He finds no help at all in the speeches of the "comforters" (verses 2-6), and turns from them to consider once more the dealings of God with him (verses 7-14). Next, he describes his own proceedings under his afflictions, and appeals to earth and. heaven, and God in heaven, to take up his cause and help him (verses 15-22). In Job 17:1. he continues much in the same-strain, but with an intermixture of the topics, which is somewhat confusing. In Job 17:1, Job 17:2 he bewails himself; in...

[BUT] I WOULD STRENGTHEN YOU WITH MY MOUTH,.... Comfort them with the words of his mouth; so God strengthens his people with strength in their souls, when he answers them with good and comfortable words; an angel strengthened Christ as man when in an agony, comforting him, suggesting comfortable things to him; so one saint may strengthen and comfort another when in distress, whether of soul or body; see Psalms 138:3; and thus Job had strengthened and comforted others, with his words in former times, as Eliphaz himself owns, Job 4:3 and so he would again, were there a change in his circumstances, and objects presented: AND THE MOVING OF MY LIPS SHOULD ASSUAGE [YOUR GRIEF]: words uttered by him, which are done by the moving of the lips, should be such as would have a tendency to allay gri

CHAPTER S 16-17 JOB'S REPLY TO ELIPHAZ _ 1. Miserable comforters are ye all (Job 16:1)_ 2. Oh God! Thou hast done it! (Job 16:6) 3. Yet I look to Thee (Job 16:15) 4. Trouble upon trouble; self-pity (Job 17:1) 5. Where is now my hope? (Job 17:13) Job 16:1. How masterfully he meets their wrong accusations and how he brings forth his suffering afresh, yet always with that horrible nightmare, God is not for me, but against me! Such things Eliphaz spoke he had h

Job has had enough of his tormenting comforters (Job 16:2 f.). He could, if the positions were reversed, well enough offer them such mere verbal consolation (the stress in Job 16:5 is on mouth and lips). Translate Job 16:5 as a continuation of Job 16:4. I could strengthen you with my mouth, and my lip's compassion I would not spare (the last clause after LXX)....

Job 16:1-5. Job expresses his weariness of the monotony of his friends'speeches, and rejects their consolation, which is only that of the lip...

BUT I WOULD STRENGTHEN YOU WITH MY MOUTH— _I would rather encourage you with my mouth, and the vehemency of my eloquence should be kept within bounds._ This is very applicable to the treatment that he had received from his friends, and a proper reproof of it. Heath....