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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

Well," I replied, "my Job's comforters, I have accepted Kilronan, and am going there.

From My New Curate by Sheehan, Patrick Augustine

"You are one of Job's comforters, Martin," replied Gascoigne.

From Mr. Midshipman Easy by Marryat, Frederick

But although the gloomy prognostications of his Job’s comforters failed in the least to depress his spirits, one very small cloud hovered occasionally on the horizon.

From The Master of the Shell by Reed, Talbot Baines

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 Ross, Martin