Job 6
Job Justifies His Complaint 1–7
Job Prays for Immediate Death 8–13
The Unreliability of His Friends 14–23
Job Demands Constructive Counsel 24–30
Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain
Study Notes for Job 6
Verse 2
throughly weighed — The Hebrew doubles the verb (shaqal) to stress that the weighing be complete. Job asks for his 'grief' and 'calamity' to be laid in the balances together, as he asks in 31:6, 'Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.' Eliphaz had said, 'it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled' (4:5).
Verse 3
heavier than the sand of the sea — Prov 27:3 sets the weight of sand beside stone: 'A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty.' 'Swallowed up' is la'a, to gulp, hence to speak rashly; it is found elsewhere only in Obad 16, 'swallow down'. Job gives the weight of his grief as the reason his words are hasty.
Verse 4
arrows of the Almighty — Shaddai is the Hebrew behind 'the Almighty'. The arrows are 'within' him, as in Ps 38:2, 'thine arrows stick fast in me', and 'his archers compass me round about' (16:13). 'Set themselves in array' is arak, the verb of drawing up a battle line (1 Sam 17:2).
Verse 5
the wild ass… the ox — Both animals have what they need: the wild ass's 'pasture' is 'the range of the mountains' (39:8). Beasts cry out when it fails: 'How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture' (Joel 1:18). Job's cry, he argues, has a cause.
Verse 6
without salt — Salt seasoned every offering (Lev 2:13), and Paul asks that speech be 'seasoned with salt' (Col 4:6). Job turns from food to the friends' words: 'Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat?' (12:11). Challamuth, in 'the white of an egg', occurs only here.
Verse 7
my sorrowful meat — Dewai is sickness or loathing; it occurs elsewhere only in Ps 41:3, 'the bed of languishing'. What his soul refused to touch is now his food. He had said earlier, 'my sighing cometh before I eat' (3:24), and the psalmist speaks of eating 'ashes like bread' (Ps 102:9).
Verse 8
the thing that I long for — Tiqvah, expectation, the word translated 'hope' elsewhere in Job: Eliphaz had named Job's 'hope' (4:6), and Job says his days 'are spent without hope' (7:6). What he asks of God here, in vv.8–9, is death; he says again, 'my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life' (7:15).
Verse 9
to destroy me — Daka, to crush, is the verb of Isa 53:10, 'it pleased the LORD to bruise him', and 'let loose his hand' uses nathar, to loose. 'Cut me off' (batsa) is the verb of Isa 38:12, 'he will cut me off with pining sickness', said in the figure of the weaver. Elijah made a like request, 'take away my life' (1 Kings 19:4).
Verse 10
I would harden myself in sorrow — Salad, found only here, rendered 'harden myself'; the 'sorrow' (chiyl) is a pang or throe. His comfort is that he has 'not concealed the words of the Holy One'. In 23:12 he says, 'I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.'
Verse 12
the strength of stones — Job continues from v.11, 'What is my strength, that I should hope?' Stone and brass are the materials of the creatures God later describes: 'His heart is as firm as a stone' (41:24) and 'His bones are as strong pieces of brass' (40:18). Job does not claim that strength.
Verse 14
pity should be shewed — 'Pity' is chesed, kindness, rendered 'favour' in 10:12 and 'mercy' in 37:13. The afflicted one is mas, melted or fainting. Job holds that one who withholds it 'forsaketh the fear of the Almighty'. He asks again in 19:21, 'Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends.'
Verse 15
dealt deceitfully as a brook — Bagad, to act treacherously, occurs in Job only here. The 'brook' (nachal) is a winter stream that vanishes in heat (vv.16–17). Jeremiah uses the same figure of the LORD: 'wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?' (Jer 15:18).
Verse 20
confounded because they had hoped — The caravans of vv.18–19, 'the troops of Tema' and 'the companies of Sheba', come to the dry bed and are ashamed. Jeremiah describes the same scene: 'they came to the pits, and found no water… they were ashamed and confounded' (Jer 14:3).
Verse 21
ye see my casting down, and are afraid — Chittath, dismay, occurs only here. The friends had come 'to mourn with him and to comfort him' (2:11). Fear of the Almighty (yirah) is what Job says they leave in v.14; here it is only fear of the sight. 'My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore' (Ps 38:11).
Verse 24
Teach me, and I will hold my tongue — Job offers silence in exchange for instruction on 'wherein I have erred'. He had made the same request of God: 'shew me wherefore thou contendest with me' (10:2). The plea sets up v.25, where he asks what the friends' arguing actually proves.
Verse 25
How forcible are right words — Marats, to press, to be strong; it occurs only four times in the Old Testament (1 Kings 2:8; Job 6:25; 16:3; Mic 2:10). Eliphaz had once given such words: 'Thy words have upholden him that was falling' (4:4). The second question asks what the friends' arguing actually reproves.
Verse 27
ye dig a pit for your friend — 'Overwhelm' is naphal, to cause to fall; 'dig' is karah. The pit is the image of Ps 7:15, 'He made a pit, and digged it'. The fatherless stand for the helpless whom Job had defended: 'I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless' (29:12).
Verse 29
Return, I pray you — Shub is said twice, 'return… return again'. 'Iniquity' (avlah) here and in v.30 is the same word. Job asks the friends to look again and find no wrong in him: 'My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go' (27:6).
Verse 30
Is there iniquity in my tongue? — 'Perverse things' is havvah, the word rendered 'calamity' in v.2. 'Taste' is chek, the palate, as in 12:11, 'the mouth taste his meat' (a different word from the 'taste' of v.6). Job closes on the figure of food: his palate can tell what is perverse.