Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 16:5
[But] I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should assuage [your grief].
5. The verse no doubt carries on the idea of the preceding:
I could strengthen you with my mouth,
And the condolence of my lips could assuage your grief.
The emphasis falls on mouth and lips. Job could give them lip-comfort enough, pour out abundance of words in which lay no power to uphold the heart as they did not proceed from the heart. “Condolence” as ch. Job 2:11.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
(But I would strengthen you with my mouth With that which proceeds from the mouth – words.
And the moving of my lips – My speaking – implying that it would have been done in a mild, gentle, kind manner – so that the lips would appear just to move. Others, however, have given a different interpretation. Thus, Dr. Good renders it:
With my own mouth will I overpower you,
Till the quivering of my lips shall fall.
But the common interpretation is to be preferred. The word rendered moving nyd is from nud – to move, agitate, and hence, denotes motion. It denotes here the motion of the lips when we speak. Gesenius renders it, consolation, comfort – because this is expressed by a motion of the head.
Should assuage your grief – The word used here ( yachasak) means properly to hold back, to restrain; Job 7:11. Here it is correctly rendered, meaning that he would hold back, or check their sorrows. In other words, he would sustain them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. I would strengthen you with my mouth] Mr. Good translates thus: –
“With my own mouth will I overpower you,
Till the quivering of my lips shall fail;”
for which rendering he contends in his learned notes. This translation is countenanced by the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Strengthen you, i.e. direct, and support, and comfort you. My discourse should comfort you. The words your grief are here understood, either out of the foregoing clause, where they are implied; or out of the next verse, where they are expressed. Possibly the words may be thus rendered without any ellipsis, which is most natural, if the translation be true and suitable: compassion (for the Hebrew word nid comes from nud, which signifies to condole) should restrain or govern my lips, that they should avoid all speeches which may vex you, and speak only what may be to your comfort and benefit; whereas you let your tongues loose to speak whatsoever pleaseth you, or tormenteth me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. strengthen . . . with . . .mouthbitter irony. In allusion to Eliphaz’ boasted”consolations” (Job15:11). Opposed to strengthening with the heart, that is,with real consolation. Translate, “I also (like you) couldstrengthen with the mouth,” that is, with heartlesstalk: “And the moving of my lips (mere lip comfort) couldconsole (in the same fashion as you do)” [UMBREIT].”Hearty counsel” (Pr27:9) is the opposite.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[But] I would strengthen you with my mouth,…. Comfort them with the words of his mouth; so God strengthens his people with strength in their souls, when he answers them with good and comfortable words; an angel strengthened Christ as man when in an agony, comforting him, suggesting comfortable things to him; so one saint may strengthen and comfort another when in distress, whether of soul or body; see
Ps 138:3; and thus Job had strengthened and comforted others, with his words in former times, as Eliphaz himself owns, Job 4:3 and so he would again, were there a change in his circumstances, and objects presented:
and the moving of my lips should assuage [your grief]: words uttered by him, which are done by the moving of the lips, should be such as would have a tendency to allay grief, to stop, restrain, forbid, and lessen sorrow; at least that it might not break out in an extravagant way, and exceed bounds, and that his friends might not be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Job 16:5. But I would strengthen you with my mouth I would rather encourage you with my mouth, and the vehemency of my eloquence should be kept within bounds. This is very applicable to the treatment that he had received from his friends, and a proper reproof of it. Heath.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 16:5 [But] I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage [your grief].
Ver. 5. But I would strengthen you with my mouth ] I would speak to your hearts, and raise up your drooping spirits. True it is, that consolatiunculae creaturulae (as Luther calleth them), creature comforts are poor businesses; nevertheless God conveyeth comfort many times by one man to another, as the air conveyeth light, or water heat. His comforts are either rational, fetched from grounds which faith ministereth; or real, from the presence of anything that comforteth, as the sight and discourse of a friend. And herein, “how forcible are right words!” Job 6:25 . They are of force, we see here, both to strengthen the feeble minded, and to abate the strength of their sorrows, to assuage the most swelling floods thereof. And thus one man may be an angel, nay, a God, to another, Now whereas some might say, You that are so good at comforting others, and promise so fair, why are you not comfortable? Job answereth, in the next verse, that this was their fault who had unkindly kept him apart from receiving any comfort.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
But I would: Job 4:3, Job 4:4, Job 6:14, Job 29:25, Psa 27:14, Pro 27:9, Pro 27:17, Isa 35:3, Isa 35:4, Gal 6:1
Reciprocal: 1Sa 23:16 – strengthened Job 6:25 – forcible Job 26:2 – helped Job 36:17 – fulfilled Job 42:11 – they bemoaned Ecc 10:12 – words Dan 10:18 – he Rev 3:2 – strengthen
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 16:5. But I would strengthen you with my mouth I would endeavour to direct, support, and comfort you, and say all I could to assuage your grief, but nothing to aggravate it. It is natural to sufferers to think what they would do if the tables were turned; but, perhaps, our hearts may deceive us; we know not what we would do; we find it easier to discern the reasonableness and importance of a command, when we have occasion to claim the benefit of it, than when we have occasion to do the duty of it. We ought, however, to say and do all we can to strengthen our brethren in affliction, suggesting to them such considerations as are proper to encourage their confidence in God, and to support their sinking spirits. Faith and patience, we should remember, are the strength of the afflicted, and what helps these graces, confirms the feeble knees. The reader will observe, there is nothing in the Hebrew for the words your grief, in the latter clause of this verse, which are therefore printed in Italic letters. Our translators supposed that there is an ellipsis in the Hebrew text, and that these, or some words of the same import, were necessary to complete the sense. But the word, , nid, here rendered moving, (being derived from , nud, which sometimes means to condole,) may be translated, compassion, and then, without supposing any defect in the text, the sense of the clause will be, Compassion should restrain, or, govern my lips; namely, that they should avoid all speeches which might vex you, and speak only what might be to your comfort and benefit; whereas you let your tongues loose to speak whatsoever pleaseth you, although it does not profit, but only torment me. Chappelow proposes yet another version of the words, which he thinks the true one, namely, I could be stronger than you with my mouth; but he [God] restrains the motion of my lips.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
16:5 [But] I would strengthen you {e} with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage [your grief].
(e) If this were in my power, yet I would comfort you and not do as you do to me.