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," 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 Roe, Edward Payson

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

From Mr. Midshipman Easy by Marryat, Frederick

You'll think we're reg'lar Job's comforters," cried the good soul hastily, "but there, Mis' Thacher, you know we feel as if she was our own.

From A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches by Jewett, Sarah Orne

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

From The Confidence-Man by Melville, Herman