Were there 10 reproaches by Job's 3 friends?

Question

Job 19:3 (kjv) - These 10 times you (3 friends) have cast reproach upon me.

Is there any consensus as to whether the '10 times' is a figurative or literal reference? If literal, what are the 10 reproaches?

Answer 1

Here is an outline of Job:

Speach no.	Reference	Content
Prologue	Job 1 & 2	Story Setup
	First Cycle
1.	Job 3	Job speaks
2.	Job 4 & 5	Eliphaz speaks
3.	Job 6 & 7	Job replies
4.	Job 8	Bildad replies
5.	Job 9 & 10	Job replies
6.	Job 11	Zophar speaks
7.	Job 12-14	Job replies
	Second Cycle
8.	Job 15	Eliphaz speaks
9.	Job 16 & 17	Job replies
10.	Job 18	Bildad speaks
11.	Job 19	Job replies
12.	Job 20	Zophar speaks
13.	Job 21	Job replies
	Third Cycle
14.	Job 22	Eliphas speaks
15.	Job 23 & 24	Job replies
16.	Job 25	Bildad speaks
17.	Job 26 - 31	Job's final response to friends
18.	Job 32 - 37	Elihu speaks
19.	Job 38 - 41	The LORD speaks
20.	Job 42:1-6	Job's response to the LORD
	Job 42:7-17	Epilogue

It is immediately obvious that we have the following:

• Job speaks 10 times
• Job's friends speak 9 times
• The LORD speaks once

The comment about "ten times" in Job 19:3 [actually, the friends had only spoken five times] is probably a Hebraism for "often" as per:

• "Ten times is a round number for often, Genesis 31:7; Numbers 14:22" as per the Cambridge commentary.
• Similarly, the Pulpit commentary says: "For the use of the expression "ten times" for "many times." "frequently." see Genesis 31:7, 41; Numbers 14:22; Nehemiah 4:12; Daniel 1:20, etc."
• "These ten times - Many times; the word "ten" being used as we often say, "ten a dozen" or "twenty," to denote many; see Genesis 31:7, "And your father hath changed my wages "ten times." Leviticus 26:26, "and when I have broken your staff of bread, "ten women" shall bake your bread, in one oven;" compare Numbers 14:22; Nehemiah 4:6." as per Barnes
• "ten—that is, often (Ge 31:7)." as per Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
• "These ten times, i.e. many times. A certain number for an uncertain. So this phrase is oft used, as Genesis 31:7 Numbers 14:22, &c." as per Matthew Poole

Much less likely is Job's anticipation of the ten speeches that we made to rebuke him including the LORD's.

Answer 2

Job 19

1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “How long will you torment me
and break me in pieces with words?
3 These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
are you not ashamed to wrong me?

Verse 2 ties back to Bildad's preceding speech in chapter 18:
Job 18

2 “How long will you hunt for words?
Consider, and then we will speak.

Ten is a number sometimes used in scripture to indicate fullness or completion. The use of "10 times" in Job 19:3 is Job's way of saying that his "friends" have fully humiliated or shamed him, not that they have humiliated him 10 times.
In spite of Job indicating that he is completely and fully humiliated they keep on arguing for what they think they know.

Other examples of this in scripture are Genesis 31:7 and 41, Numbers 14:22

A paraphrase might be:
I'm completely shamed and yet you feel no shame at the wrong you have done me.

Answer 3

Short Answer: The phrase “These ten times” is generally understood by biblical scholars to be a figure of speech rather than a literal count of the number of reproaches. Who would actually expect Job to count each reproach he received?

According to Gill's Exposition:

These ten times have ye reproached me,.... Referring not to ten sections or paragraphs, in which they had done it, as Jarchi; or to the five speeches his friends, in which their reproaches were doubled; or to Job's words, and their answer, as Saadiah; for it does not denote an exact number of their reproaches, which Job was not so careful to count; but it signifies that he had been many times reproached by them; so Aben Ezra, and in which sense the phrase is often used...

I like what the Keil and Delitzsch OT Commentary says:

Ten times is not to be taken strictly (Saad.), but it is a round number; ten, from being the number of the fingers on the human hand, is the number of human possibility, and from its position at the end of the row of numbers (in the decimal system) is the number of that which is perfected

Other examples of this would be:

Genesis 31:7 - Yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me.

Nehemiah 4:12 - So it was, when the Jews who dwelt near them came, that they told us ten times, “From whatever place you turn, they will be upon us.”

Numbers 14:22 - because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice,

Daniel 1:20 - And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm.

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^{Note: also see Barnes' Notes on the Bible, the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary, the Pulpit Commentary, the Geneva Study Bible, the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, and Matthew Poole's Commentary which support it as a figure of speech.}

Answer 4

I would not be surprised if someone does dig up 10 reproaches in the 8 speeches of his three friends one day. Having said that, there is clearer evidence for the figurative use of the term.

On the surface it has always looked to me like ten was just a random number chosen to use as a figurative emphasis by exagereation, but there is an interesting spin-off from the words of Solomon about the law at the end of Ecclesiastes.

In Ecclesiastes 12:13 the wisest repentant sinner that ever lived brings before us his conclusion after a life that started well and for him almost ended in hell, by saying: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

When I take into account the fact that the only part of Scripture written by God Himself is this law and that He boiled down our whole duty into ten precepts, I see a link (significant enough to me) between the number ten and completeness.

In this light then I come to passages like this one in Job and enjoy for myself the nuanced depth of what he is saying here. Their reproaches of him have been complete - they have not spared him any decencies by their unloving words.

Another place where you can see the non literal use of the term ten with an interesting twist when associating it with completeness, is in Daniel 1:20. The king tests the level of literacy and education gained by the four young men at the end of their allotted study program and finds them excelling all his wise men in every way he knows.