Job 16:6

6 "Even if I speak, my pain is not less, and if I don't speak, it still does not go away.

Job 16:6 Meaning and Commentary

Job 16:6

Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged
Though he spoke to God in prayer, and entreated for some abatement of his sorrows, he got no relief; and though he spoke to himself in soliloquies, his sorrow was not repressed nor lessened; he could not administer comfort to himself in the present case, though he might to others in like circumstances, if his own were changed;

and [though] I forbear
speaking, hold my peace, and say nothing,

what am I eased?
or "what goes from me" F20? not anything of my trouble or grief; sometimes a man speaking of his troubles to his friends gives vent to his grief, and he is somewhat eased; and on the other hand being silent about it, he forgets it, and it goes off; but in neither of those ways could Job be released: or it may be his sense is, that when he spake of his affliction, and attempted to vindicate his character, he was represented as an impatient and passionate man, if not as blasphemous, so that his grief was rather increased than assuaged; and if he was silent, that was interpreted a consciousness of his guilt; so that, let him take what course he would, it was much the same, he could get no ease nor comfort.


FOOTNOTES:

F20 (Klxy ynm hm) "quid a me abit", Junius & Tremellius, Schultens.

Job 16:6 In-Context

4 I also could speak as you do if you were in my place. I could make great speeches against you and shake my head at you.
5 But, instead, I would encourage you, and my words would bring you relief.
6 "Even if I speak, my pain is not less, and if I don't speak, it still does not go away.
7 God, you have surely taken away my strength and destroyed my whole family.
8 You have made me thin and weak, and this shows I have done wrong.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.