But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.
True comfort is strengthening a sufferer by what is spoken, using words that ease grief rather than deepen it. It works by encouragement and consolation directed to the afflicted person, lifting rather than wounding them. The opposite course is to meet pain with reproach and criticism, heaping up accusations against the one who is already burdened. Job makes the contrast personal by declaring that he could turn accuser if places were exchanged, yet he would choose instead to speak in ways that encourage and console his friends.
True comfort is strengthening a sufferer by what is spoken, using words that ease grief rather than deepen it. It works by encouragement and consolation directed to the afflicted person, lifting rather than wounding them. The opposite course is to meet pain with reproach and criticism, heaping up accusations against the one who is already burdened. Job makes the contrast personal by declaring that he could turn accuser if places were exchanged, yet he would choose instead to speak in ways that encourage and console his friends.