“I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.
Parallel translations
- WEB “I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters!
- KJV I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.
- NKJV “I have heard many such things; Miserable comforters are you all!
- NASB “I have heard many things like these; Miserable comforters are you all!
- NLT “I have heard all this before. What miserable comforters you are!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job tells his friends he has heard such things many times and calls them miserable comforters. Their repeated arguments only add to his pain.
Overview
Job dismisses the friends' speeches as stale and their comfort as worthless, even harmful. The phrase miserable comforters captures the failure of counsel that lacks compassion and discernment. It is a warning to all who would help the hurting: truth without mercy wounds, whereas Christ binds up the brokenhearted (Isaiah 61:1).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Job 13:4–5You, however, smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians.
- Job 19:2–3“How long will you torment me and crush me with your words?
- Job 26:2–3“How you have helped the powerless and saved the arm that is feeble!
- Phil 1:16The latter do so in love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.
- Jas 1:19My beloved brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,
- Job 11:2–3“Should this stream of words go unanswered and such a speaker be vindicated?
- Job 6:6Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the white of an egg?
- Ps 69:26For they persecute the one You struck and recount the pain of those You wounded.
- Job 6:25How painful are honest words! But what does your argument prove?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 16:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.