Job 16:1 says, Then Job answered and said, After listening, Job now responds.  He did not feel the need, or at least give in to the urge, to interrupt.  Verse two adds, I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.  Job certainly had a point here.  His friends were indeed miserable comforters.  Basically, everything they said pointed to Job being a hypocrite and a sinner.  If we go to some who is suffering today, especially a Christian, we need to hope that we will be better at comforting them.  We really need to pray that we won't go to them condemning them as hypocrites or sinners.  Verse three continues, Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?  Job asked his friends if there would ever be an end to their vein, or empty and meaningless, words.  Job recognized that there was no truth to their words.  I believe that he knew this because he knew that his relationship with God was true.  If we are going to recognize when people are not speaking the truth about God, we must first have a relationship with God.  Job also asked why they felt emboldened to speak to him this way.  I believe that Job knew that what they were saying was not based on God's authority, so he wondered why they felt that they should so boldly condemn him.  If someone comes to us today condemning our actions as being sinful, especially if it is based on material things, we need to ask them by what authority they feel free to speak.  If we know that we are in a right relationship with God, then no one else has the authority, or right, to question it.  Verse four states, I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.  Job said that if the roles were reversed, he could speak to them as they did to him.  He did not say that he would, but only that he could.  We need to recognize that we have the ability to judge people based on what we see going on in their lives, but we need to pray that we don't judge them based erroneous knowledge of their relationship with God.  Verse five adds, But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.  Job told his friends that if he did speak to them if they were in his condition, that he would offer words of hope and encouragement to lessen their grief.  We need to feel the same way about those that we see in need.  As followers of Christ, we are not called to condemn, but to comfort and offer the hope of Christ to those we reach out to.  Verse six continues, Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?  Job said that talking about and even just enduring the pain brought him no relief.  Things are easier to endure if there is hope that they are going to get better, but Job had no such hope.  Verse seven declares, But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.  Job still saw God as the direct cause of his problems, saying that He, or God, had made Job weary.  Job also said his friends had made him desolate, being condemned by them instead of being offered hope.  If someone today, especially a fellow believer, is feeling that somehow God has abandoned or is punishing them, we need to offer them encouragement and hope and not look for ways to question their faith.  Verse eight adds, And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.  Job said that his physical condition might seemingly bear witness against him, but he maintained that it did not mean that he was spiritually impure.  Not only should our friends not judge us based on our physical condition, neither should we judge ourselves based on physical, or material, things.  Our relationship with God, or the spiritual, is all that matters.  Verse nine continues, He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me. I believe that Job felt that he was being torn apart by God's wrath on him.  He also felt that what his friends were doing was like gnashing at him in his misery.  Verse ten concludes, They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.  Job said that basically his friends were looking at him with reproach instead of empathy.  We need to be better friends to those around us who are suffering, looking to comfort and not to condemn.