Then Job answered and said opens his reply to his three friends in their continuing discussion. That extended debate runs from chapters 4 to 31 and concerns his afflictions and the cause and purpose of human suffering. More immediately, the verse begins the portion spanning chapters 15 through 17. In that portion he protests his innocence and expresses a desire for death. At this point his friends condemned him as seeming self-righteous, while he felt they judged him unjustly.
Then Job answered and said opens his reply to his three friends in their continuing discussion. That extended debate runs from chapters 4 to 31 and concerns his afflictions and the cause and purpose of human suffering. More immediately, the verse begins the portion spanning chapters 15 through 17. In that portion he protests his innocence and expresses a desire for death. At this point his friends condemned him as seeming self-righteous, while he felt they judged him unjustly.