Job's comforter
[ johbz ]
/ dʒoʊbz /
noun
a person who unwittingly or maliciously depresses or discourages someone while attempting to be consoling.
Origin of Job's comforter
First recorded in 1730–40
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
British Dictionary definitions for job's comforters
Job's comforter
noun
a person who, while purporting to give sympathy, succeeds only in adding to distress
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Culture definitions for job's comforters
Job's comforters
Three friends of Job who visited him in his affliction and offered him a way of making sense of his troubles: namely, that he was getting what he deserved. Job's friends maintained that misfortunes were sent by God as punishments for sin, and thus despite Job's apparent goodness, he must really be a terrible sinner. Job persistently disputed them, saying that God is supreme and mysterious — that God can send misfortunes to both good and wicked people and may not be second-guessed.
Note
A “Job's comforter” is someone who apparently offers consolation to another person but actually makes the other person feel worse.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.