Job 6

FIRST SERIES CONTINUED.

Job 6:1-30.

REPLY OF

JOB TO

ELIPHAZ.

2. throughly weighed--Oh, that instead of censuring my complaints

when thou oughtest rather to have sympathized with me, thou wouldst

accurately compare my sorrow, and my misfortunes; these latter

"outweigh in the balance" the former.

3. the sand--

(Pr 27:3).

are swallowed up--See Margin [that is, "I want words to express

my grief"]. But Job plainly is apologizing, not for not having had words

enough, but for having spoken too much and too boldly; and the

Hebrew is, "to speak rashly" [UMBREIT,

GESENIUS,

ROSENMULLER].

"Therefore were my words so rash."

4. arrows . . . within me--have pierced me. A poetic image

representing the avenging Almighty armed with bow and arrows

(Ps 38:2, 3).

Here the arrows are poisoned. Peculiarly appropriate, in reference to

the burning pains which penetrated, like poison, into the

inmost parts--("spirit"; as contrasted with mere surface flesh

wounds) of Job's body.

set themselves in array--a military image

(Jud 20:33).

All the terrors which the divine wrath can muster are set in array

against me

(Isa 42:13).

5. Neither wild animals, as the wild ass, nor tame, as the ox, are

dissatisfied when well-supplied with food. The braying of the one and

the lowing of the other prove distress and want of palatable food. So,

Job argues, if he complains, it is not without cause; namely, his

pains, which are, as it were, disgusting food, which God feeds him with

(end of

Job 6:7).

But he should have remembered a rational being should evince a better

spirit than the brute.

6. unsavoury--tasteless, insipid. Salt is a chief necessary of

life to an Easterner, whose food is mostly vegetable.

the white--literally, "spittle"

(1Sa 21:13),

which the white of an egg resembles.

7. To "touch" is contrasted with "meat." "My taste refused

even to touch it, and yet am I fed with such meat of

sickness." The second clause literally, is, "Such is like the sickness

of my food." The natural taste abhors even to touch insipid food, and

such forms my nourishment. For my sickness is like such nauseous food

[UMBREIT].

(Ps 42:3; 80:5; 102:9).

No wonder, then, I complain.

8. To desire death is no necessary proof of fitness for death. The

ungodly sometimes desire it, so as to escape troubles, without thought

of the hereafter. The godly desire it, in order to be with the Lord;

but they patiently wait God's will.

9. destroy--literally, "grind" or "crush"

(Isa 3:15).

let loose his hand--God had put forth His hand only so far as to wound

the surface of Job's flesh

(Job 1:12; 2:6);

he wishes that hand to be let loose, so as to wound deeply

and vitally.

cut me off--metaphor from a weaver cutting off the web, when finished,

from the thrum fastening it to the loom

(Isa 38:12).

10. I would harden myself in sorrow--rather, "I would exult in the

pain," if I knew that that pain would hasten my death

[GESENIUS].

UMBREIT

translates the Hebrew of "Let Him not spare," as "unsparing"; and

joins it with "pain."

concealed--I have not disowned, in word or deed, the commands of the

Holy One

(Ps 119:46;

Ac 20:20).

He says this in answer to Eliphaz' insinuation that he is a hypocrite.

God is here called "the Holy One," to imply man's reciprocal obligation

to be holy, as He is holy

(Le 19:2).

11. What strength have I, so as to warrant the hope of restoration

to health? a hope which Eliphaz had suggested. "And what" but a

miserable "end" of life is before me, "that I should" desire to

"prolong life"? [UMBREIT].

UMBREIT and

ROSENMULLER not so well

translate the last words "to be patient."

12. Disease had so attacked him that his strength would need to be

hard as a stone, and his flesh like brass, not to sink under it. But he

has only flesh, like other men. It must, therefore, give way; so that

the hope of restoration suggested by Eliphaz is vain

(see on

Job 5:11).

13. Is not my help in me?--The interrogation is better omitted. "There

is no help in me!" For "wisdom," "deliverance" is a better rendering.

"And deliverance is driven quite from me."

14. pity--a proverb. Charity is the love which judges indulgently

of our fellow men: it is put on a par with truth in

Pr 3:3,

for they together form the essence of moral perfection [UMBREIT]. It is the spirit of Christianity

(1Pe 4:8;

1Co 13:7;

Pr 10:12; 17:17).

If it ought to be used towards all men, much more towards friends. But

he who does not use it forsaketh (renounceth) the fear of the Almighty

(Jas 2:13).

15. Those whom I regarded as "my brethren," from whom I looked for

faithfulness in my adversity, have disappointed me, as the streams

failing from drought--wadies of Arabia, filled in the winter, but dry

in the summer, which disappoint the caravans expecting to find water

there. The fulness and noise of these temporary streams answer to the

past large and loud professions of my friends; their dryness in summer,

to the failure of the friendship when needed. The Arab proverb says of

a treacherous friend, "I trust not in thy torrent"

(Isa 58:11,

Margin).

stream of brooks--rather, "the brook in the ravines which passes

away." It has no perpetual spring of water to renew it (unlike "the

fountain of living waters,"

Jer 2:13;

Isa 33:16,

at the end); and thus it passes away as rapidly as it arose.

16. blackish--literally, "Go as a mourner in black clothing"

(Ps 34:14).

A vivid and poetic image to picture the stream turbid and black with

melted ice and snow, descending from the mountains into the valley. In

the [second] clause, the snow dissolved is, in the poet's view, "hid"

in the flood [UMBREIT].

17. wax warm--rather, "At the time when." ("But they soon wax")

[UMBREIT]. "they become narrower (flow in a narrower bed), they are

silent (cease to flow noisily); in the heat (of the sun) they are

consumed or vanish out of their place. First the stream flows more

narrowly--then it becomes silent and still; at length every trace of

water disappears by evaporation under the hot sun"

[UMBREIT].

18. turned aside--rather, "caravans" (Hebrew, "travellers") turn

aside from their way, by circuitous routes, to obtain water. They had

seen the brook in spring full of water: and now in the summer heat, on

their weary journey, they turn off their road by a devious route to

reach the living waters, which they remembered with such pleasure. But,

when "they go," it is "into a desert"

[NOYES and

UMBREIT]. Not as

English Version, "They go to nothing," which would be a tame

repetition of the drying up of the waters in

Job 6:17;

instead of waters, they find an "empty wilderness"; and, not having

strength to regain their road, bitterly disappointed, they "perish."

The terse brevity is most expressive.

19. the troops--that is, "caravans."

Tema--north of Arabia-Deserta, near the Syrian desert; called from

Tema son of Ishmael

(Ge 25:15;

Isa 21:14;

Jer 25:23),

still so called by the Arabs.

Job 6:19, 20

give another picture of the mortification of disappointed hopes,

namely, those of the caravans on the direct road, anxiously awaiting

the return of their companions from the distant valley. The mention of

the locality whence the caravans came gives living reality to the

picture.

Sheba--refers here not to the marauders in North Arabia-Deserta

(Job 1:15),

but to the merchants

(Eze 27:22)

in the south, in Arabia-Felix or Yemen, "afar off"

(Jer 6:20;

Mt 12:42;

Ge 10:28).

Caravans are first mentioned in

Ge 37:25;

men needed to travel thus in companies across the desert, for defense

against the roving robbers and for mutual accommodation.

The companies . . . waited for them--cannot refer to

the caravans who had gone in quest of the waters; for

Job 6:18

describes their utter destruction.

20. literally, "each had hoped"; namely, that their companions would

find water. The greater had been their hopes the more bitter now their

disappointment;

they came thither--to the place.

and were ashamed--literally, "their countenances burn," an Oriental

phrase for the shame and consternation of deceived expectation; so

"ashamed" as to disappointment

(Ro 5:5).

21. As the dried-up brook is to the caravan, so are ye to me,

namely, a nothing; ye might as well not be in existence

[UMBREIT]. The

Margin "like to them," or "to it" (namely, the waters of the

brook), is not so good a reading.

ye see, and are afraid--Ye are struck aghast at the sight of my

misery, and ye lose presence of mind. Job puts this mild construction

on their failing to relieve him with affectionate consolation.

22. And yet I did not ask you to "bring me" a gift; or to "pay for

me out of your substance a reward" (to the Judge, to redeem me from my

punishment); all I asked from you was affectionate treatment.

23. the mighty--the oppressor, or creditor, in whose power the debtor

was [UMBREIT].

24, 25. Irony. If you can "teach me" the right view, I am willing

to be set right, and "hold my tongue"; and to be made to see my error.

But then if your words be really the right words, how is it that they

are so feeble? "Yet how feeble are the words of what you call the right

view." So the Hebrew is used (in

Mic 2:10; 1:9).

The English Version, "How powerful," &c., does not agree so well

with the last clause of the verse.

25. And what will your arguings reprove?--literally, "the reproofs

which proceed from you"; the emphasis is on you; you may find fault,

who are not in my situation [UMBREIT].

26. Do you imagine--or, "mean."

to reprove words and (to reprove) the speeches of one desperate,

(which are) as wind?--mere nothings, not to be so narrowly taken to task?

UMBREIT not so well takes the Hebrew for "as wind," as "sentiments";

making formal "sentiments" antithetical to mere "speeches," and

supplying, not the word "reprove," but "would you regard," from the

first clause.

27. literally, "ye cause" (supply, "your anger")

[UMBREIT], a net,

namely, of sophistry [NOYES and

SCHUTTENS], to fall upon the desolate (one

bereft of help, like the fatherless orphan);

and ye dig (a pit) for your friend--that is, try to ensnare him, to

catch him in the use of unguarded language

[NOYES].

(Ps 57:6);

metaphor from hunters catching wild beasts in a pit covered with

brushwood to conceal it. UMBREIT from the

Syriac, and answering to his interpretation of the first clause,

has, "Would you be indignant against your friend?" The

Hebrew in

Job 41:6,

means to "feast upon." As the first clause asks, "Would you catch

him in a net?" so this follows up the image, "And would you next

feast upon him, and his miseries?" So the Septuagint.

28. be content--rather, "be pleased to"--look. Since you have so

falsely judged my words, look upon me, that is, upon my countenance: for

(it is evident before your faces) if I lie; my countenance will betray

me, if I be the hypocrite that you suppose.

29. Return--rather, "retract" your charges:

let it not be iniquity--that is, (retract) that injustice may not be

done me. Yea retract, "my righteousness is in it"; that is, my right is

involved in this matter.

30. Will you say that my guilt lies in the organ of speech, and

will you call it to account? or, Is it that my taste (palate) or

discernment is not capable to form a judgment of perverse things? Is it

thus you will explain the fact of my having no consciousness of guilt?

[UMBREIT].