Bible Commentary - Job 16

In this chapter, Job replies to Eliphaz by describing his grief.

Job’s response is a two-chapter business, so this chapter only covers the first half of his message.  For this part of the message, it’s hard to find a unifying theme behind Job’s words but if I had to choose one, I would say it is Job’s sense of loss and despair at what he has suffered.

In verses 1-5, Job once again criticizes his friends for condemning him and judging him.

Beginning in verse 9, Job begins speaking about how God has assailed him; he refers to God  as his “adversary”, who has handed him over into “the hands of the wicked” (v. 11).  Verses 13-14 emphasize again the adversarial nature by referring to God as a “warrior”, one who fights against Job by shooting him through with arrows and “running at” him.

In verses 15-22, Job once again pleads to God for mercy, highlighting his humility and innocence.  Strangely, in verse 19 he says that his “advocate is on high”, claiming that God is his witness and advocate.  This is a strange expression because earlier in this same chapter he refers to God as his adversary, but now God is the one fighting on his behalf.

Instead, in v. 20 Job is basically saying that his friends are the ones “scoffing” at him and ridiculing him, and that God is the one who is his witness and will vindicate his righteous life.  This seems contradictory to Job’s rhetoric earlier in this same chapter, when God was the adversary.  I don’t really know how to reconcile these two ideas.  Certainly the notion that “people are fighting against me but God is for me” is a common biblical motif, and we see that sort of thing all the time.  It’s possible that Job is simply reaching for that motif because he’s upset with his friends and it’s a common pattern, even though it doesn’t really fit in the context.

In verse 21 Job wants to “plead with God”, though it’s not clear to me if this pleading is because he wants to ask God for relief or ask God for justice.

Overall, I don’t think this chapter conveys any substantially new thoughts compared to what we’ve seen earlier in Job.  It seems to me like a very emotional recapitulation of the same concepts that have dominated throughout the whole book.

In the next chapter, Job completes his rebuttal.