The Meaning of Job 16:20 Explained

Job 16:20

KJV: My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.

YLT: My interpreter is my friend, Unto God hath mine eye dropped:

Darby: My friends are my mockers; mine eye poureth out tears unto +God.

ASV: My friends scoff at me: But mine eye poureth out tears unto God,

KJV Reverse Interlinear

My friends  scorn  me: [but] mine eye  poureth out  [tears] unto God. 

What does Job 16:20 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 16:1-22 - Turning From "miserable Comforters" Unto God
With bitterness the sufferer turns from his comforters to God. As the r.v. makes clear, he says that if he were in their place and they in his, instead of joining words together and evincing the pride of the immaculate, he would set himself to speak strengthening words and to assuage their grief by tender sympathy.
He compares his pains to the attack of a wild beast, Job 16:7-14; and from this he proceeds to describe the anguish of his grief, Job 16:15-20. But toward the end of the chapter a new thought begins to shape itself; and from his lowest despair he catches sight of a Vindicator and a vindication that must someday be his. Job 16:21 should be read as in the r.v., margin. Job wanted a son of man to plead for him; and his prayer has been more than answered in the Son of man, who pleads for us "not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an indissoluble life," Hebrews 7:16. "O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul," Lamentations 3:58. [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 16

1  Job reproves his friends for unmercifulness
17  He maintains his innocence

What do the individual words in Job 16:20 mean?

Scorn me My friends to God pour out [tears] My eyes
מְלִיצַ֥י רֵעָ֑י אֶל־ אֱ֝ל֗וֹהַ דָּלְפָ֥ה עֵינִֽי

מְלִיצַ֥י  Scorn  me 
Parse: Verb, Hifil, Participle, masculine plural construct, first person common singular
Root: לִיץ 
Sense: to scorn, make mouths at, talk arrogantly.
רֵעָ֑י  My  friends 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural construct, first person common singular
Root: רֵעַ  
Sense: friend, companion, fellow, another person.
אֱ֝ל֗וֹהַ  God 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: אֱלֹוהַּ  
Sense: God.
דָּלְפָ֥ה  pour  out  [tears] 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Perfect, third person feminine singular
Root: דָּלַף 
Sense: to drop, drip.
עֵינִֽי  My  eyes 
Parse: Noun, common singular construct, first person common singular
Root: עֹונָה 
Sense: eye.