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

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

"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

"What a lot of Job's comforters you fellows have been this morning."

From A Certain Rich Man by White, William Allen

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