How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
The verse stands inside the extended debate between Job and his three friends over his afflictions. In that debate Job is suffering under God's discipline while his friends wrongly insist that his suffering is caused by his sin. Here soul denotes a person's feelings and inner experience. It is that inner life which his companions vex and distress with their words.
The verse is Job's protest asking how long his friends will keep tormenting him. He asks how long they will distress and wound him with words, accuse him, and crush him in pieces by what they say. Their counsel may be stated as fact yet be wrongly applied to a sufferer. For affliction does not prove that a person is under God's displeasure.
The verse stands inside the extended debate between Job and his three friends over his afflictions. In that debate Job is suffering under God's discipline while his friends wrongly insist that his suffering is caused by his sin. Here soul denotes a person's feelings and inner experience. It is that inner life which his companions vex and distress with their words.
The verse is Job's protest asking how long his friends will keep tormenting him. He asks how long they will distress and wound him with words, accuse him, and crush him in pieces by what they say. Their counsel may be stated as fact yet be wrongly applied to a sufferer. For affliction does not prove that a person is under God's displeasure.