The Book of Job

Word Study

"pity," Hebrew chesed (חֶסֶד), kindness, loyal love, covenant faithfulness. At the heart of Job's reply is a plea for the one thing his friends have withheld: "To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend." The word for "pity" is chesed, the great Hebrew word for loyal, faithful, covenant love, kindness that does not fail even when its object is at his lowest. Job says: this is what a friend owes to one who is despairing, faithful kindness. Instead, Eliphaz offered cold argument and veiled accusation. And Job adds a solemn warning: the one who withholds such kindness from the afflicted "forsaketh the fear of the Almighty." To fail in compassion toward a suffering friend is not a small thing; it is a departure from true reverence for God, for the God-fearing heart is a compassionate heart. Job names the great failure of his comforters: they have theology but no tenderness, arguments but no chesed. To withhold such pity, to answer a broken person with cold correctness, is itself a kind of forsaking the fear of God. Job's plea, "pity should be shewed," is the cry of every sufferer who has been offered explanations instead of love.

"afflicted," mas (מָס), one who is melting, despairing. Job does not describe himself as merely inconvenienced or bruised. The word pictures a man melting away, a heart dissolving under the heat of trouble until nothing solid is left to stand on, and that is the condition in which he says a friend's loyal kindness is owed. This is a searching word for all who would help the hurting. When someone is "melting" in affliction, what they need most is not a lecture but loyal love, faithful kindness that stays near, feels their pain, and does not add to their burden.

Explanation

Job pleads for the one thing his friends have withheld: kindness. The word for "pity" is the great Hebrew term for loyal, faithful love, the kindness a friend owes to one who is despairing. Instead of such tenderness, Eliphaz offered cold argument and veiled accusation. Job warns that to withhold compassion from the afflicted is to forsake "the fear of the Almighty," for true reverence for God produces a compassionate heart. The suffering need not lectures but loyal love that stays near and does not add to their burden. To answer a broken person with cold correctness is itself a failure of godliness.

Gospel Focus

"To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend" is a call to the faithful kindness that God requires toward the suffering, and a rebuke to cold, loveless correctness. The word is chesed, loyal love, the very quality God shows His people and requires of us: "he hath shewed thee, O man, what is good... to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God" (Micah 6:8). The Lord Jesus was "moved with compassion" toward the hurting again and again (Matthew 9:36; 14:14), and He is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews 4:15). We are called to the same: "put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness" (Colossians 3:12); "be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted" (Ephesians 4:32); "weep with them that weep" (Romans 12:15). And Job's warning is sobering: to withhold pity from the afflicted is to "forsake the fear of the Almighty," for a God-fearing heart is a compassionate heart, and "pure religion" is to "visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction" (James 1:27). It is possible to be theologically correct and pastorally cruel, to offer a suffering person truth without love, which is not truth as God means it. Let us not be Job's comforters, but Christ's kind of comforter, drawing near to the afflicted with loyal love, feeling their pain, and showing the mercy that God has shown us. When you meet the suffering, show chesed: faithful, tender kindness that reflects the heart of God.

Word Study

"forcible," Hebrew nimretzu (נִמְרְצוּ), forceful, painful, cutting. Job draws a sharp distinction: "How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?" The word describes speech with real edge to it, words that cut. Job does not object to force in words; he admits their power. His complaint is that force can cut two ways, and that his friends were forceful while their force was misdirected. Even "true" statements, if wrongly aimed or coldly delivered, become weapons rather than medicine.

"right words," imrei-yosher (אִמְרֵי־יֹשֶׁר), words of uprightness, honest words. True, honest words, "right words", have real power; they are forceful and can pierce and heal. These are words of uprightness, true, loving, honest words spoken to the right end, and they are powerful for good, as Proverbs says, "a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver" (Proverbs 25:11). Job longs for right words that would actually help.

"your arguing," hokheach mikkem (הוֹכֵחַ מִכֶּם), the reproof from you. But the "arguing" of his friends is another thing entirely; their reproof accomplishes nothing but wounding. Job is saying: honest, upright words have their place and power, but what you are doing is not that. Your argument does not actually reprove me of any real sin; it only stings without correcting anything true. There is deep wisdom here about the difference between words that genuinely help and words that merely wound. Argument for its own sake, correctness without love, reproof that does not fit the case, only hurts. Job's friends argued against a sin Job had not committed, so their words wounded without healing. What he receives is arguing that reproves nothing real but only adds to his pain.

Explanation

Job distinguishes true, honest words from cold argument. "Right words", upright, loving, honest words, have real power to help and heal. But the "arguing" of his friends accomplishes nothing but wounding; it reproves him of no actual sin and only stings. Job longs for words that would genuinely help; instead he receives argument for its own sake, correctness without love, aimed at a sin he did not commit. Words have power to build up or tear down, and even true statements, if wrongly aimed or coldly delivered, become weapons rather than medicine.

Gospel Focus

"How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?" teaches the vast difference between words that heal and words that merely wound. God's word is powerful and honest words have real force for good, "a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver" (Proverbs 25:11); "the tongue of the wise is health" (Proverbs 12:18). But the same power of words can wound: "there is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword" (Proverbs 12:18). Job's friends had force but no fitness; their arguing reproved nothing real and only hurt. The lesson for us is to speak "right words", true and loving, aimed to heal, not to argue for its own sake or to wound the hurting. "Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt" (Colossians 4:6); "let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers" (Ephesians 4:29). The goal of our words, especially to the suffering, is to "minister grace," not to score points or vent argument. And the pattern is Christ, of whom it was said, "never man spake like this man" (John 7:46), who spoke "gracious words" (Luke 4:22) yet also the truth, always aimed to save and heal, "the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). Ask God to fill your mouth with "right words", honest, gracious, fitly spoken, that heal rather than wound; and beware the empty arguing that reproves nothing but only adds to the pain of the afflicted.