Answering Eliphaz, Job tells his friends directly that they do not understand him at all and do not want to understand him (Job 16:2-3). He says to them: if I were in your place and you in mine, it would cost me nothing to "comfort" you in the same way with meaningless general phrases and common religious truths (Job 16:4-5). Meanwhile, Job is waiting for an answer not from his friends at all, but from God (Job 16:20). He accuses God precisely of his misfortunes, asserting that none other than God Himself has abandoned him to the mercy of fate, as the wicked are abandoned, destroyed his family, and sent him an illness that Job did not deserve at all (Job 16:6-17). And yet Job speaks of his heavenly Advocate (Job 16:18-19). At first glance this transition from despair to hope may seem inconsistent. But the seeming inconsistency is resolved at once (Job 16:21-22).
As we can see, Job connects his hopes precisely with the fact that a face-to-face meeting with God, like a person's meeting with another person, is still possible. Then there is hope that God will value Job's righteousness by relating His holiness to a human measure. For now, however, Job has to defend his righteousness not only before God, but also before his friends, who do not want to understand him or support him in his search for meaning. Job perceives his friends' words as nothing but mockery (Job 17:1-2). He asks God to stand up for him before his friends, whose heart, in his own words, is "closed to understanding" (Job 17:4-7).
Job has no doubt that his friends are being hypocritical in their communication with him (Job 17:8-9). Religious fear makes them fail to notice the obvious: Job's situation is such that it cannot fit into any traditional religious framework; from that point of view Job has no hope and can have none (Job 17:13-16). But Job's friends behave toward him as though his situation were completely ordinary, as though nothing special had happened, and as though it were enough simply to wait a little and everything would normalize by itself and become as it was before. In Job's own words, they "try to turn night into day" (Job 17:10-12). It is no wonder that Job finds no true wisdom in his friends' words, and that all their consolations only irritate him.
