Job 16:6-17

Job’s distress at God’s hand 16:6-17

Job’s friends did not cause his greatest discomfort, however; from Job’s perspective God did. Most of the verses in this pericope are easy to understand. A better translation of Job 16:6 b might be, "And if I hold back, it does not leave me."

"Job’s assumption that God was angry with him [in Job 16:9] implies that Job subconsciously felt that God was punishing him for some unknown sin of which Job was unaware. He wished that God would reveal this to him (Job 10:2)." [Note: Parsons, p. 154. Cf. 34:9; 35:3.]

Evidently Job had suffered abuse at the hands of young people who harassed him at the city dump where he was staying (Job 16:11). A defeated animal often thrusts its horn or horns in the dust. Job compared himself to such an animal (Job 16:15). Again he admitted no action or attitude worthy of his intense suffering (Job 16:17).