Job lists the relationships which have broken down. One after another of those who should have brought him consolation have been taken away.
Job was taking the gloomiest possible view of everything. There would be recovery from this misery, but he could not see it at present. He had also lost the affection of all around him. He had a remarkable strength, secretly sustained by the Lord, to hold out against such pressure. It is troubling enough when one friend turns against us, but in Job’s case not one voice in his favour is recorded up to this point. He was a man without friends, and this was a further great weight bearing down on his soul. In our deepest trials we are cast upon the Lord. ‘When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up’ (Psalm 27:10). His trial was all the greater because the Lord too seemed to be his enemy. In such a situation we have nowhere else to go except to the throne of grace. There we must remain, searching our own hearts, and waiting for the Lord to be merciful towards us.
‘Since God has so exercised his children in the past, we should not marvel that he does the same with us today. Therefore let us wait patiently, and we will see that he has not forgotten us … and if we are enabled to continue patient in prayer, it is a token that God has heard us already … The reason why God delays in helping us … is that we are not praying to him as earnestly as we need to … If men are asked whether they have done his best to pray to God to have mercy on them, every one will answer that they have done as much as possible. But they that speak in this way do not know what prayer means. They go as coldly to this as to anything … but God seeing our coldness and negligence, does not help us as soon as we desire in order to enliven us … Or else … there will be some rebelliousness hidden in us, as we see here in Job. It is true that Job prayed, but was it with such mildness that was fitting? No, but he was rather too impatient … Although we are tormented and pressed down with adversities, yet must we not stop sighing and groaning, and, along with this, blessing the name of God and submitting ourselves to him’ (Calvin – English updated).
Job’s children have been killed earlier in the narrative, and therefore various attempts have been made to explain why these children (verse 17) are not his own children. It is suggested that they could be adopted children, or children from another marriage. The previous description of his family does not easily allow this. Others suggest that they are children from his mother’s womb, that is, his brothers. Two very similar verbs exist in Hebrew and the KJV goes for one – ‘to be gracious towards’, ‘to intreat’ – while others versions go for the other – ‘to be loathsome’ or ‘repulsive’. The KJV rendering therefore has a quite different thought: that Job appealed unsuccessfully to his wife on the basis of their common shared children.