Job's comforters

Cultural  

1. 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.

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A “Job's comforter” is someone who apparently offers consolation to another person but actually makes the other person feel worse.

Example Sentences

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Job's comforters

They are, of course, the modem equivalents of Job's comforters and plagues.

From Time Magazine Archive

Yes, Job's comforters were Old Plain Talk, and Old Prudence, and Old Conscience, to your poor old father.

From The Confidence-Man by Herman Melville

Whilst Yussuf was thus lamenting over his empty water-skin, some of the other water-carriers came up, and began to console him after the fashion of Job’s comforters.

From The Pacha of Many Tales by Frederick Marryat

Flurry, clad in glistening yellow oilskins, met me in the yard, wearing an expression of ill-concealed exultation worthy of Job's comforters at their brightest.

From Further Experiences of an Irish R.M. by Martin Ross

"Well," sighed Bel, who at times was one of Job's comforters, "I've heard he has never been the same since."

From From Jest to Earnest by Edward Payson Roe