Commentary on
The Book of Job

Chapter Sixteen: Cover Not My Blood

Job Replies to Eliphaz

Job Replies to Eliphaz

Job: chapter 16
¹ Then Job answered and said,

² I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.
³ Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?
⁴ I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.
⁵ But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.
⁶ Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?

⁷ But now he hath made me weary: Thou hast made desolate all my company.
⁸ And Thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.
⁹ He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
¹⁰ They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.
¹¹ God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
¹² I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.
¹³ His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
¹⁴ He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.
¹⁵ I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.
¹⁶ My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

¹⁷ Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
¹⁸ O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
¹⁹ Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.
²⁰ My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
²¹ O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man leadeth for his neighbor!
²² When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

Job's answer to Eliphaz is brief (16:2-5). His answer takes on the same high tone as Elipaz (Chambers 1990, 79): “Shall vain words have an end?” (16:3). ‘You keep saying the same thing’ (16:2-3). “If your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you” (16:4), lectures Job, ‘but I would rather comfort you and strengthen you’ (16:5).

Verse 3 is a retort. “Vain words” is “windy words” in other translations. He is speaking of Eliphaz's sneer, “Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?” (15:2).

It is worth asking whether Job really would comfort his friend if the tables were turned, or would he take a position not far different from that of his friends. His theology doesn't seem any different from the friends. I will say that Job's devotion to God does push him beyond the logical confines of his theology.

I Could Heap Up Words

An interesting side note on verse four: the word “heap” is ‘châbar’ in Hebrew. Strong's defines it as “A primitive root; to join (literally or figuratively)” (Strong, H2266). Barnes further suggests, “The Hebrew word used here (châbar) means to bind, to bind together, to associate, to be confederate” (Barnes, note to 16:4). Religion, which is both Job's fountain of strength and his bane, is a word from the Latin root ‘religare’ meaning “to bind back” (Websters).

Skipping down to verse eight, Job claims, “Thou hast filled me with wrinkles” (16:8). Barnes notes that the Hebrew word translated here as ‘fill with wrinkles’ is ‘qâmat’:

“Probably the true notion of the word is to be found in the Arabic. According to Castell, this means, to tie together the four feet of a sheep or lamb, in order that it might be slain; to bind an infant in swaddling clothes before it is laid in a cradle; to collect camels into a group or herd; and hence, the noun is used to denote a cord or rope twisted of wool, or of leaves of the palm, or the bandages by which an infant is bound. This idea is not in use in the Hebrew; but I have no doubt that this was the original sense of the word, and that this is one of the numerous places in Job where light may be cast upon the meaning of a word from its use in Arabic. The Hebrew word may be applied to the ‘collecting’ or ‘contraction’ of the face in wrinkles by age, but this is not the sense here. We should express the idea by ‘being “drawn up” with pain or affliction; by being straitened, or compressed.’ The meaning – is that of ‘drawing together’ – as the feet of a sheep when tied, or twisting – as a rope; and the idea here is, that Job was drawn up, compressed, bound by his afflictions – and that this was a witness against him. The word ‘compressed’ comes as near to the sense as any one that we have.” (Barnes, note to 16:8).

In both passages there is an underlying meaning of the bondages either to religious ideas, to ‘heap up words’ (16:4), or to the binding of God's affliction (16:8). In the first case the word of God has been stripped of life – misapplied. The second approuch to binding is in the true majesty of the cross, for the cup of wrath seems to be pouring out on Job's head and yet Job stays bound to God and God alone. As Barnes paraphrases Job's reply in verse eight, “The fact that God has thus compressed, and fettered, and fastened me; that he has bound me as with a cord – as if I were tied for the slaughter, is an argument on which my friends insist, and to which they appeal, as a proof of my guilt. I cannot answer it” (Barnes, note to 16:8).

You Make Desolate My Company

Job continues with his lament, partly to his friends, partly to himself, and partly to God. Now the reproach of his friends figures prominently in his lamented afflictions. They are now listed as “my enemy” (16:9): “They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me” (16:10).

Job attributes his afflictions to God, including that of his three friends: “Thou hast made desolate all my company” (16:7). Job attributes all ultimate authority and power to God. ‘I can't even hide my affliction’, cries Job, ‘you wrinkle my face’ (16:8) ‘and cause me to wince in my agony’. “God hath delivered me to the ungodly” (16:11).

Job follows with a vivid description of God hunting him down and tearing at him as a predator that shakes its catch to dismember it (16:12-14). “My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death” (16:16). “I have–defiled my horn in the dust” (16:15). In humiliation, Job has laid the exhaltation of his office, his trumpet, in the dust. He has taken on the sign of penitance, sackcloth and ashes (16:15). But he does not see the reason for it. “I am a just man and my prayer is pure”, reminds Job (16:17).

Job is being attacked and torn apart on every side. This is not a man whining because his water bill is too high. Job has been broken down to nothing in his finances, in his estate, in his health, and in the esteem of men; and it all adds up to one thing in his mind, he has lost the esteem of God. We will see that the Holy Spirit tries to penetrate with profound revelations of comfort, but in each circumstance Satan counter attacks with doubt and pessimism.

Cover Not My Blood

Job cries out to be justified: “O earth, cover not thou my blood” (16:17), lest this injustice be forgotten. In verse 19, Job professes a faith that he has a witness in heaven and that God will not forget. He does not elaborate on who or what this witness is. Job's tears plead for him, even as his friends scoff (16:20).

Note: the NIV translation for 16:20, “my intercessor is my friend”, gives an entirely different meaning to this phrase, which doesn't appear to concur with the Strong's definitions (Strong, H7453 & H3887; also: Clarke, note to 16:20). The footnotes in the NET Bible explain the problem: “The first two words of this verse are problematic: melisay re`ay, ‘my scorners are my friends.’ The word melis, from or related to the word for ‘scorner’, ‘lis’ in wisdom literature especially, can also mean ‘mediator’ (Job 33:23) or ‘interpreter’ (Gen. 42:23). This gives the idea that ‘scorn’ has to do with the way words are used” (NET Bible, footnote to 16:20). I actually like “my scorners are my friends” as the implication is that the scorn of his closest friends is driving Job to God: “mine eye poureth out tears unto God” (16:20).

Job is still calling for a face to face session with God (16:21) despite God's silence. The chapter concludes on a despondent note, “When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return” (16:22). Chapter seventeen continues these same themes.

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*All Bible quotes are from the King James Version unless otherwise indicated.

Commentary onThe Book of Job