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

But if I acquitted my two Job's comforters of insincerity, I was yet far from admitting them infallible.

From The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson

Forgive me, Ida, I will try to do better by you though I fear I shall prove one of Job's comforters.

From A Face Illumined by Edward Payson Roe

I am as well as a man can be who can neither sit, walk, nor stand five minutes at a time on account of Job's comforters.

From Admiral Farragut by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

But if I acquitted my two Job’s comforters of insincerity, I was yet far from admitting them infallible.

From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 13 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson