Job 16:5

But ¹  I would strengthen ²  you with my words; ³  comfort from my lips would bring ⁴  you relief.

But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

"I could strengthen you with my mouth, And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.

But that’s not what I would do. I would speak in a way that helps you. I would try to take away your grief.

But I'd never do that. I'd console and comfort, make things better, not worse!

I might give you strength with my mouth, and not keep back the comfort of my lips.

I could encourage you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

But I would strengthen you with my mouth, And the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief .

But ¹  I would strengthen ²  you with my words; ³  comfort from my lips would bring ⁴  you relief.

¹ tn “But” has been added in the translation to strengthen the contrast.

² tn The Piel of אָמַץ (’amats) means “to strengthen, fortify.”

³ tn Heb “my mouth.”

⁴ tn The verb יַחְשֹׂךְ (yakhsokh) means “to restrain; to withhold.” There is no object, so many make it first person subject, “I will not restrain.” The LXX and the Syriac have a different person – “I would not restrain.” G. R. Driver, arguing that the verb is intransitive here, made it “the solace of my lips would not [added] be withheld” (see JTS 34 [1933]: 380). D. J. A. Clines says that what is definitive is the use of the verb in the next line, where it clearly means “soothed, assuaged.”