Job asks Eliphaz for compassion

Job replies to Eliphaz, who is chastening him for lamenting his birth after all Job’s sons and daughters were killed:

How forceful are upright words!
But what does reproof from you reprove?
Do you think that you can reprove words,
when the speech of a despairing man is wind?

(Job 6:25 – 26)

I read this as: Despairing people say all kinds of things. Don’t correct the theology of what they say – that doesn’t help them. Instead, be compassionate and comfort them instead.

Having a technically orientated brain, like mine, makes the first option so much more inviting. Telling friends what they should think is so much easier than humbling myself to walk alongside them and support them.