Job's comforter

[johbz] /dʒoʊbz/
noun
1.
a person who unwittingly or maliciously depresses or discourages someone while attempting to be consoling.
Origin
1730-40
British Dictionary definitions for job's comforters

Job's comforter

noun
1.
a person who, while purporting to give sympathy, succeeds only in adding to distress
job's comforters in Culture

Job's comforters definition


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.

Note: A “Job's comforter” is someone who apparently offers consolation to another person but actually makes the other person feel worse.