The Book of Job

Word Study

"miserable," Hebrew amal (עָמָל), troublesome, wearisome, bringing labour and grief. Job coins one of the most memorable and painful phrases in Scripture: "miserable comforters are ye all." The word he chooses is the word for toil and grief, the very thing a comforter is supposed to lift; the friends have become a labour to be borne rather than a help in bearing. This is a sobering picture of how not to help the suffering. True comfort does not lecture the broken, does not rush to explain their pain, does not defend God by accusing the sufferer.

"comforters," menachamim (מְנַחֲמִים) from nacham, to comfort, console. The men who came to console him have become menachamim amal, "comforters of trouble", comforters who only add to grief. They came to help and have wounded; they meant to console and have condemned. The tragedy is that these were not enemies but friends who had traveled far and sat with Job seven days in silence (Job 2:11-13). Yet the moment they opened their mouths with their formulas, they became burdens instead of balm. Job even tells them how it should be done: "I also could speak as ye do... but I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief" (v4-5). Their failure is a warning to all who would minister to the hurting: mere correct words, delivered without love and without listening, are miserable comfort. The grieving need presence, tenderness, and the strengthening word, not a verdict.

Explanation

Job coins a phrase that has echoed ever since: "miserable comforters are ye all." His friends came to console and have only added to his grief, meaning to help but wounding, meaning to comfort but condemning. They were not enemies but friends who traveled far and sat with him in silence, yet their formulas turned them into burdens. Job shows the better way, "I would strengthen you with my mouth." It is a warning to all who help the hurting: correct words without love and without listening are miserable comfort. The grieving need presence and tenderness, not a verdict.

Gospel Focus

"Miserable comforters are ye all", the failure of Job's friends throws into bright relief the true Comforter God has given. Where they wearied Job with grief, Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). He is the One who does "strengthen" with His mouth and "asswage grief", "A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench" (Matthew 12:20). And He has sent "another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever" (John 14:16), the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the One called alongside to help. Our God is "the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). The Gospel not only gives us a Saviour but a Comforter, so that those who suffer need not be left to miserable comforters, but may find in Christ and His Spirit the true consolation. And this transforms how we comfort others: having been comforted by God, we are "able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God" (2 Corinthians 1:4). The remedy for Job's friends' failure is the tender heart of Christ, who does not lecture the broken but binds up the brokenhearted (Isaiah 61:1). To comfort like Jesus is to sit with the hurting in love, and to point them, gently, to Him.

Word Study

"witness," Hebrew ed (עֵד), one who testifies, a witness in court. After describing his crushing assault, and just after crying that his prayer is pure and his blood cries out (v17-18), Job's faith suddenly soars: "behold, my witness is in heaven." The word is a courtroom word, one who stands up and testifies to what he knows. Though every earthly voice condemns him, Job is convinced that there is Someone who knows the truth about him and will testify on his behalf. This is a remarkable flash of faith in the dark. Job has felt God as his attacker (v9-14), yet here he appeals past that dark experience to a deeper conviction.

"record," sahed (שָׂהֵד), an Aramaic term for witness, one who vouches for another. "And my record is on high." Job repeats the thought with a second word for a witness, one who vouches for another and stands behind his word. In a profound sense Job is right, and right beyond what he could know, for the reader has seen the heavenly scene where God Himself testified to Job's integrity: "there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man" (Job 1:8).

"on high," bammeromim (בַּמְּרוֹמִים), in the heights, in heaven. This is where Job locates the one voice that will speak for him: not on earth, where his friends sit accusing, but in the heights. Job's witness truly was in heaven. And this longing for a heavenly witness and advocate, one who will vouch for us before God, is exactly what the Gospel supplies. Job reaches upward in the dark and touches, without fully seeing, the truth of a heavenly Advocate who pleads for His own.

Explanation

In the depths, Job's faith flashes upward: "my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high." Though every earthly voice condemns him, Job is sure there is Someone in heaven who knows the truth about him and will testify for him. It is a striking flash of faith, for he has just felt God as his attacker, yet appeals past that darkness to a deeper conviction of a heavenly witness. And he was right beyond his knowing, for the reader has seen God Himself testify to Job's integrity in heaven. This longing for a heavenly witness and advocate is exactly what the Gospel supplies.

Gospel Focus

"My witness is in heaven, and my record is on high", Job's confidence in a heavenly witness is fulfilled gloriously in Jesus Christ, who is "the faithful and true witness" (Revelation 3:14) and our Advocate on high. For the believer, there truly is One in heaven who vouches for us: "we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). He has entered "into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us" (Hebrews 9:24), and "he ever liveth to make intercession" for us (Hebrews 7:25). When the accuser points to our sins, and when our own hearts condemn us, we have a witness in heaven whose testimony is His own shed blood, "the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel" (Hebrews 12:24). Job felt condemned on earth but was sure of a witness above; the Christian, far more, rests in an Advocate at God's right hand who pleads not our innocence but His own finished work. "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?... It is Christ that died... who also maketh intercession for us" (Romans 8:33-34). Whatever the voices of earth may say, and however dark our experience, the believer can lift his eyes with Job and say, and know it for certain in Christ: my witness is in heaven, my record is on high, and He lives to plead for me.

Word Study

"plead," Hebrew yokach (יוֹכַח) from yakach, to argue a case, decide, reason as an advocate, the same root behind the "daysman" of Job 9:33. Job's deepest longing surfaces once more: "O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!" He wishes for an advocate who would argue his case before God the way a friend pleads for a friend. The verb comes from the same root as the "daysman" of chapter 9, the mediator who could lay his hand on both God and man (Job 9:33), so this is the same cry raised a second time.

"for a man," legaver (לְגֶבֶר). The advocate Job wants must stand on man's side of the case, pleading for a mortal as a neighbour pleads for his neighbour. Here the longing is sharpened by contrast: his human friends have utterly failed to plead for him, they have accused him instead, but Job longs for One who will truly take his side and plead his cause.

"with God," im-Eloah (עִם־אֱלוֹהַּ). And the party on the other side of the case is God Himself, which is exactly what makes the request seem impossible; no neighbour can step into that court. Notice how Job's faith keeps circling back to this need, the need for a Mediator, an Advocate, a heavenly Friend who will represent him before God. It is as if the Spirit, through Job's suffering, keeps pressing the human race toward its deepest necessity and God's ultimate provision. Job cannot yet see the answer clearly, but he keeps reaching for it: someone to plead for man with God. And the whole New Testament is, in a sense, the answer to this single verse.

Explanation

Job's deepest longing surfaces again: "O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!" He wishes for an advocate who would argue his case before God as a friend pleads for a friend, the same cry as the "daysman" of chapter 9. It is sharpened by the failure of his human friends, who accused instead of pleading for him. Job's faith keeps circling back to this one need, a Mediator, an Advocate, a heavenly Friend to represent him before God. He cannot yet see the answer, but he keeps reaching for it, and the whole Gospel is the answer.

Gospel Focus

"O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!", Job's yearning is answered in full by the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who pleads for man with God. He is the "one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5), truly God and truly man, who alone can represent us before God because He is one with God and one with us. He does exactly what Job longed for: He pleads for us. "He ever liveth to make intercession" for those who come to God by Him (Hebrews 7:25). On the night before the cross He prayed for His own (John 17), and now at the Father's right hand He intercedes continually. And He pleads not as a stranger but as our Friend, "I have called you friends" (John 15:15), the Friend "that sticketh closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24), who laid down His life for His friends (John 15:13). Where Job's earthly friends failed him, the heavenly Friend never fails. This is the wonder of the Gospel: the God against whom we had no plea has Himself provided the One who pleads for us, come in flesh as the man Christ Jesus. Job sighed, "O that one might plead for a man with God"; the believer rejoices that One does, and His plea, backed by His own blood, always prevails. In Christ, the sigh of Job has become the settled peace of the redeemed.