Job 36:16 Study Bible: Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a broad place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.

◄ Job 36:16 ►

Indeed, He drew you from the jaws of distress to a spacious and broad place, to a table full of richness.

Indeed, He drew you from the jaws of distress
This phrase highlights God's deliverance from severe trials. In the context of Job, it reflects the belief that God rescues the faithful from suffering. The "jaws of distress" metaphorically represents extreme danger or hardship, akin to being trapped by a predator. This imagery is consistent with other biblical passages where God is depicted as a deliverer, such as in Psalm 18:19, where God brings the psalmist into a "broad place" after rescuing him. Historically, the idea of divine rescue is prevalent in the Ancient Near East, where gods were often seen as protectors of their people.

to a spacious and broad place
This phrase signifies freedom and relief after a period of confinement or oppression. In biblical terms, a "spacious place" often symbolizes safety and abundance, contrasting with the narrowness of distress. This imagery is used in Psalm 31:8, where God sets the psalmist's feet in a "broad place." Theologically, it can be seen as a type of the spiritual freedom found in Christ, who offers liberation from the bondage of sin (John 8:36).

to a table full of richness
The "table full of richness" symbolizes provision and blessing. In the ancient world, a table laden with food was a sign of prosperity and divine favor. This imagery is reminiscent of Psalm 23:5, where God prepares a table before the psalmist in the presence of his enemies, indicating protection and abundance. Culturally, sharing a meal was a significant act of fellowship and covenant, pointing to the ultimate fellowship believers have with God through Christ, as seen in the eschatological banquet described in Revelation 19:9.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Job
A righteous man tested by God through severe trials, including loss of wealth, health, and family. His account is a profound exploration of suffering and divine justice.

2. Elihu
A younger friend of Job who speaks in chapters 32-37. He offers a perspective that emphasizes God's justice and sovereignty, suggesting that suffering can be a means of divine instruction and growth.

3. God
The sovereign Creator who allows Job's trials. Elihu emphasizes God's role in delivering and teaching through suffering.

4. Distress
Represents the trials and suffering Job is experiencing. Elihu suggests that God uses these moments to draw people closer to Himself.

5. Spacious and Broad Place
Symbolizes freedom, relief, and abundance that God provides after a period of trial and testing.

Teaching Points

God's Deliverance
God is actively involved in delivering His people from distress. Trust in His timing and methods, even when they are not immediately apparent.

Purpose in Suffering
Suffering can be a tool for growth and deeper understanding of God's character. Seek to learn and grow through trials rather than merely seeking escape.

Abundance After Trials
God promises not only relief but also abundance and richness after periods of testing. Hold onto hope for God's provision and restoration.

Divine Instruction
View challenges as opportunities for divine instruction. Ask God for wisdom to understand His purposes and to align your heart with His will.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does Elihu's perspective on suffering differ from that of Job's other friends, and what can we learn from it about God's character?

2. In what ways have you experienced God drawing you from a place of distress to a place of abundance in your own life?

3. How can the imagery of a "spacious and broad place" encourage you in your current circumstances?

4. What other biblical examples can you think of where God used trials to bring about growth and blessing?

5. How can you apply the lessons from Job 36:16 to support someone else who is going through a difficult time?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Psalm 18:19
This verse speaks of God bringing the psalmist into a spacious place because He delighted in him, echoing the theme of divine deliverance and favor.

Psalm 23:5
The imagery of a table full of richness connects to the psalmist's depiction of God preparing a table in the presence of enemies, symbolizing provision and blessing.

1 Corinthians 10:13
This verse assures believers that God provides a way out of temptation and trials, similar to the deliverance described in Job 36:16.

Sermons

A Broad Place	W.F. Adene	Job 36:16
An Invitation to Straitened Souls	J. Caughey.	Job 36:16
The Perfectness of the Divine Ways	R. Green	Job 36:5-17

People

Elihu, Job

Places

Topics

Allured, Beyond, Broad, Choice, Comfort, Constraint, Cramping, Distress, Enticed, Fatness, Free, Full, Indeed, Instead, Jaws, Laden, Mouth, Moved, Removed, Restriction, Sitting, Spacious, Strait, Straitness, Supply, Table, Yea, Yes

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Job 36:16

5573 table
9150 Messianic banquet

Library

Whether by his Passion Christ Merited to be Exalted?
Objection 1: It seems that Christ did not merit to be exalted on account of His Passion. For eminence of rank belongs to God alone, just as knowledge of truth, according to Ps. 112:4: "The Lord is high above all nations, and His glory above the heavens." But Christ as man had the knowledge of all truth, not on account of any preceding merit, but from the very union of God and man, according to Jn. 1:14: "We saw His glory . . . as it were of the only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and of truth." …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Christ Acquired his Judiciary Power by his Merits?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ did not acquire His judiciary power by His merits. For judiciary power flows from the royal dignity: according to Prov. 20:8: "The king that sitteth on the throne of judgment, scattereth away all evil with his look." But it was without merits that Christ acquired royal power, for it is His due as God's Only-begotten Son: thus it is written (Lk. 1:32): "The Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David His father, and He shall reign in the house of Jacob for …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Christ Will Judge under the Form of his Humanity?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ will not judge under the form of His humanity. For judgment requires authority in the judge. Now Christ has authority over the quick and the dead as God, for thus is He the Lord and Creator of all. Therefore He will judge under the form of His Godhead. Objection 2: Further, invincible power is requisite in a judge; wherefore it is written (Eccles. 7:6): "Seek not to be made a judge, unless thou have strength enough to extirpate iniquities." Now invincible power …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether the Old Law was from God?
Objection 1: It would seem that the Old Law was not from God. For it is written (Dt. 32:4): "The works of God are perfect." But the Law was imperfect, as stated above [2060](A[1]). Therefore the Old Law was not from God. Objection 2: Further, it is written (Eccles. 3:14): "I have learned that all the works which God hath made continue for ever." But the Old Law does not continue for ever: since the Apostle says (Heb. 7:18): "There is indeed a setting aside of the former commandment, because of the …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Man Can Know that He Has Grace?
Objection 1: It would seem that man can know that he has grace. For grace by its physical reality is in the soul. Now the soul has most certain knowledge of those things that are in it by their physical reality, as appears from Augustine (Gen. ad lit. xii, 31). Hence grace may be known most certainly by one who has grace. Objection 2: Further, as knowledge is a gift of God, so is grace. But whoever receives knowledge from God, knows that he has knowledge, according to Wis. 7:17: The Lord "hath given …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether the Judicial Power Corresponds to Voluntary Poverty?
Objection 1: It would seem that the judicial power does not correspond to voluntary poverty. For it was promised to none but the twelve apostles (Mat. 19:28): "You shall sit on twelve seats, judging," etc. Since then those who are voluntarily poor are not all apostles, it would seem that the judicial power is not competent to all. Objection 2: Further, to offer sacrifice to God of one's own body is more than to do so of outward things. Now martyrs and also virgins offer sacrifice to God of their …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Hypocrisy is the Same as Dissimulation?
Objection 1: It seems that hypocrisy is not the same as dissimulation. For dissimulation consists in lying by deeds. But there may be hypocrisy in showing outwardly what one does inwardly, according to Mat. 6:2, "When thou dost an alms-deed sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do." Therefore hypocrisy is not the same as dissimulation. Objection 2: Further, Gregory says (Moral. xxxi, 7): "Some there are who wear the habit of holiness, yet are unable to attain the merit of perfection. …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

The Great Teacher
Teaching was the great business of the life of Christ during the days of his public ministry. He was sent to teach and to preach. The speaker in the book of Job was thinking of this Great Teacher when he asked--"Who teacheth like him?" Job xxxvi: 22. And it was he who was in the Psalmist's mind when he spoke of the "good, and upright Lord" who would teach sinners, if they were meek, how to walk in his ways. Ps. xxv: 8-9. And he is the Redeemer, of whom the prophet Isaiah was telling when he said--He …
Richard Newton—The Life of Jesus Christ for the Young

"That which was from the Beginning,"
1 John i. 1.--"That which was from the beginning," &c. Things are commended sometimes, because they are ancient, especially doctrines in religion, because truth is before error, and falsehood is but an aberration from truth and therefore there is so much plea and contention among men, about antiquity, as if it were the sufficient rule of verity. But the abuse is, that men go not far enough backward in the steps of antiquity, that is, to the most ancient rule, and profession, and practice of truth …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Whether Hypocrisy is Always a Mortal Sin?
Objection 1: It seems that hypocrisy is always a mortal sin. For Jerome says on Is. 16:14: "Of the two evils it is less to sin openly than to simulate holiness": and a gloss on Job 1:21 [*St. Augustine on Ps. 63:7], "As it hath pleased the Lord," etc., says that "pretended justice is no justice, but a twofold sin": and again a gloss on Lam. 4:6, "The iniquity . . . of my people is made greater than the sin of Sodom," says: "He deplores the sins of the soul that falls into hypocrisy, which is a greater …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether those to whom Christ's Birth was Made Known were Suitably Chosen?
Objection 1: It would seem that those to whom Christ's birth was made known were not suitably chosen. For our Lord (Mat. 10:5) commanded His disciples, "Go ye not into the way of the Gentiles," so that He might be made known to the Jews before the Gentiles. Therefore it seems that much less should Christ's birth have been at once revealed to the Gentiles who "came from the east," as stated Mat. 2:1. Objection 2: Further, the revelation of Divine truth should be made especially to the friends of God, …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Divine Grace.
GRACE, LOYE, AND MERCY. I FIND that the goodness of God to his people is diversely expressed in his word, sometimes by the word grace, sometimes by the word love, and sometimes by the word mercy. When it is expressed by that word grace, then it is to show that what he doeth is of his princely will, his royal bounty, and sovereign pleasure. When it is expressed by that word love, then it is to show us that his affection was and is in what he doeth, and that he doeth what he doeth for us with complacency …
John Bunyan—The Riches of Bunyan

Messiah's Easy Yoke
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. T hough the influence of education and example, may dispose us to acknowledge the Gospel to be a revelation from God; it can only be rightly understood, or duly prized, by those persons who feel themselves in the circumstances of distress, which it is designed to relieve. No Israelite would think of fleeing to a city of refuge (Joshua 20:2. …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

Epistle v. To Theoctista, Sister of the Emperor.
To Theoctista, Sister of the Emperor. Gregory to Theoctista, &c. With how great devotion my mind prostrates itself before your Venerableness I cannot fully express in words; nor yet do I labour to give utterance to it, since, even though I were silent, you read in your heart your own sense of my devotion. I wonder, however, that you withdrew your countenance, till of late bestowed on me, from this my recent engagement in the pastoral office; wherein, under colour of episcopacy, I have been brought …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

The Greatness of the Soul,
AND UNSPEAKABLENESS 0F THE LOSS THEREOF; WITH THE CAUSES OF THE LOSING IT. FIRST PREACHED AT PINNER'S HALL and now ENLARGED AND PUBLISHED FOR GOOD. By JOHN BUNYAN, London: Printed for Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry, 1682 Faithfully reprinted from the Author's First Edition. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. Our curiosity is naturally excited to discover what a poor, unlettered mechanic, whose book-learning had been limited to the contents of one volume, could by possibility know …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Job
The book of Job is one of the great masterpieces of the world's literature, if not indeed the greatest. The author was a man of superb literary genius, and of rich, daring, and original mind. The problem with which he deals is one of inexhaustible interest, and his treatment of it is everywhere characterized by a psychological insight, an intellectual courage, and a fertility and brilliance of resource which are nothing less than astonishing. Opinion has been divided as to how the book should be …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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