Job 16:2

16:2 “I have heard many things like these before.

What miserable comforters ¹  are you all!

Job 21:34

21:34 So how can you console me with your futile words?

Nothing is left of your answers but deception!” ² 

Job 7:13

7:13 If ³  I say, ⁴  “My bed will comfort me, ⁵ 

my couch will ease ⁶  my complaint,”

Job 42:6

42:6 Therefore I despise myself, ⁷ 

and I repent in dust and ashes!

Job 29:25

29:25 I chose ⁸  the way for them ⁹ 

and sat as their chief; ¹⁰ 

I lived like a king among his troops;

I was like one who comforts mourners. ¹¹ 

Job 2:11

The Visit of Job’s Friends ¹² 

2:11 When Job’s three friends heard about all this calamity that had happened to him, each of them came from his own country ¹³  – Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. ¹⁴  They met together ¹⁵  to come to show sympathy ¹⁶  for him and to console ¹⁷  him.

Job 42:11

42:11 So they came to him, all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they dined ¹⁸  with him in his house. They comforted him and consoled him for all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver ¹⁹  and a gold ring. ²⁰ 

[16:2]  ¹ tn The expression uses the Piel participle in construct: מְנַחֲמֵי עָמָל (mÿnahame ’amal, “comforters of trouble”), i.e., comforters who increase trouble instead of relieving it. D. W. Thomas translates this “breathers out of trouble” (“A Note on the Hebrew Root naham,” ExpTim 44 [1932/33]: 192).

[21:34]  ² tn The word מָעַל (ma’al) is used for “treachery; deception; fraud.” Here Job is saying that their way of interpreting reality is dangerously unfaithful.

[7:13]  ³ tn The particle כִּי (ki) could also be translated “when,” but “if” might work better to introduce the conditional clause and to parallel the earlier reasoning of Job in v. 4 (using אִם, ’im). See GKC 336-37 §112.hh.

[7:13]  ⁴ tn The verb literally means “say,” but here the connotation must be “think” or “say to oneself” – “when I think my bed….”

[7:13]  ⁵ sn Sleep is the recourse of the troubled and unhappy. Here “bed” is metonymical for sleep. Job expects sleep to give him the comfort that his friends have not.

[7:13]  ⁶ tn The verb means “to lift up; to take away” (נָשָׂא, nasa’). When followed by the preposition בּ (bet) with the complement of the verb, the idea is “to bear a part; to take a share,” or “to share in the burden” (cf. Num 11:7). The idea then would be that the sleep would ease the complaint. It would not end the illness, but the complaining for a while.

[42:6]  ⁴ tn Or “despise what I said.” There is no object on the verb; Job could be despising himself or the things he said (see L. J. Kuyper, “Repentance of Job,” VT 9 [1959]: 91-94).

[29:25]  ⁵ tn All of these imperfects describe what Job used to do, and so they all fit the category of customary imperfect.

[29:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “their way.”

[29:25]  ⁷ tn The text simply has “and I sat [as their] head.” The adverbial accusative explains his role, especially under the image of being seated. He directed the deliberations as a king directs an army.

[29:25]  ⁸ tc Most commentators think this last phrase is odd here, and so they either delete it altogether, or emend it to fit the idea of the verse. Ewald, however, thought it appropriate as a transition to the next section, reminding his friends that unlike him, they were miserable comforters. Herz made the few changes in the text to get the reading “where I led them, they were willing to go” (ZAW 20 [1900]: 163). The two key words in the MT are אֲבֵלִים יְנַחֵם (’avelim yÿnakhem, “he [one who] comforts mourners”). Following Herz, E. Dhorme (Job, 422) has these changed to אוֹבִילֵם יִנַּחוּ (’ovilem yinnakhu). R. Gordis has “like one leading a camel train” (Job, 324). But Kissane also retains the line as a summary of the chapter, noting its presence in the versions.

[2:11]  ⁶ sn See N. C. Habel, “‘Only the Jackal is My Friend,’ On Friends and Redeemers in Job,” Int 31 (1977): 227-36.

[2:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “a man from his place”; this is the distributive use, meaning “each man came from his place.”

[2:11]  ⁸ sn Commentators have tried to analyze the meanings of the names of the friends and their locations. Not only has this proven to be difficult (Teman is the only place that is known), it is not necessary for the study of the book. The names are probably not symbolic of the things they say.

[2:11]  ⁹ tn The verb can mean that they “agreed together”; but it also (and more likely) means that they came together at a meeting point to go visit Job together.

[2:11]  ¹⁰ tn The verb “to show grief” is נוּד (nud), and literally signifies “to shake the head.” It may be that his friends came to show the proper sympathy and express the appropriate feelings. They were not ready for what they found.

[2:11]  ¹¹ tn The second infinitive is from נָחָם (nakham, “to comfort, console” in the Piel). This word may be derived from a word with a meaning of sighing deeply.

[42:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “ate bread.”

[42:11]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew word קְשִׂיטָה (qÿsitah) is generally understood to refer to a unit of money, but the value is unknown.

[42:11]  ⁹ sn This gold ring was worn by women in the nose, or men and women in the ear.