What To Do With False Accusations - Job 15-17

Job 17:8-9 (ESV)

The upright are appalled at this,

and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.

Yet the righteous holds to his way,

and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.’

In the above two verses Job is trying to explain what is happening as his three friends attack him with their criticism.  They came to comfort him:

Job 2:11 (ESV)

Job’s Three Friends

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.

Instead, this is what Job says about them at the beginning of this section: 

Job 16:1-2 (ESV)

Then Job answered and said:

“I have heard many such things;

miserable comforters are you all.

Instead of comfort they offered him criticism and condemnation.   In the above two verses we see part of his response.   He makes the case that the upright, those who believe they are upright, when they look at Job and his plight, they are applaud by this.  They believe they are innocent and therefore that stirs themselves up against the godless.  The issue Job is addressing is that these three comforters came to him and instead of offering comfort, they stir themselves up to argue with Job, the godless.   Once you have condemned someone in your mind, it is hard then to be their comforter.   Instead you become their judge.   

However, those who are righteous, truly righteous, is not taken aback by all this.  They simply grow stronger and stronger.  Job could be talking about someone who comes to counsel him and, because they are righteous, they are not taken aback by Job’s plight and, rather, grow stronger and stronger in their own walk.   But it is more likely Job is talking about himself and is not taken aback by these false accusers and becomes even more and more bold because he knows he is righteous.  Those who are truly righteous are not taken aback by false accusations.   They become more and more embolden.  Job is not deterred by these empty comforters.   He is, instead, stronger in his thoughts and insights because he knows he is righteous.  For so says God: 

Job 1:1 (ESV)

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.