Job 6:22

Did I say, bring unto me?.... Or, "give unto me" (b); did I invite you to come to me, and bring in your hands presents for me, to support me under my necessitous circumstances? or give a reward for me of your substance?

Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance? Bring unto me.

Did I say? or, Is it because I said? Is this, or what else is the reason why you are afraid of me, or alienated from me? Bring unto me; give me something for my support or relief. Did either my former covetousness or my present necessity make me troublesome or chargeable to you? Give a reward for me; either to the judge before whom I am brought and accused, that he may give a favourable sentence in my behalf; or to the enemy who hath taken me captive. Or, give a gift for me, i.e. for my use or need. Did I send for you to come and visit me for this end? nay, did you not come of your own accords. Why then are you thus unmerciful to me? Methinks you might at least have given me good and comfortable words, which is the easiest and cheapest part of a friend’ s work, when I desired and expected nothing else from you.

Job 6:22 Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance?Ver. 22. Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give, &c.] Did I ever charge you for my reparation or redemption? This interrogation is more emphatic than a simple negation: q.d. I never did it, and, therefore, unless you had been at more charge with me, you should have bestowed better words upon me; those would have cost you nothing certainly.

(22) Did I say, Bring unto me?—“It is not as though I had abused your former kindness. I never laid myself under obligations to you; I never asked for your help before. Had I done so, I might have wearied out your patience, and brought upon myself your present conduct justly; but you cannot convict me of this.”

Verse 22. Did I say, Bring unto me?] Why do you stand aloof? Have I asked you to bring me any presents? or to supply my wants out of your stores?

14–30. Job’s sorrowful disappointment at the position taken up towards him by his three friends Job had freely expressed his misery in ch. 3, believing that the sympathies of his friends were entirely with him. He is a brother noble, Whose nature is so far from doing harms That he suspects none. Lear, i. 2. And more sorrowful to him than any cold, critical words which they have uttered is the feeling that his friends have taken up such a position against him. This was what he had not looked for. And his disappointment is like that of the thirsty caravan that finds the long-looked-for waters dried up in the heat. Every emotion seems now to find a place in Job’s mind in succession. First, his disappointment, expressed in this beautiful figure, is mixed with the feeling how unworthy his friends’ conduct was. They had not acted to him as men do to one who is, as he describes himself, “despairing” and “losing hold of the fear of the Almighty.” Kindness is due to such a one, but they had turned against him from sheer feebleness of spirit, because they saw that his calamity was from God, Job 6:14-21. Second, this mixed sadness and contempt passes into sarcasm when he tells them that he could have understood their fear if he had asked anything from them—even one’s friends must not be put under that strain—but he sought only sympathy, Job 6:22-23. Third, this sarcasm then gives place to a direct appeal of great severity, in which he demands that they should shew him the sins at which they had indirectly hinted, and wonders at their superficial captiousness in fastening on the mere excited words of a man in despair; adding in terms of bitter invective that their disposition was so hard that they would cast lots for the orphan and make market of their own friend, Job 6:24-27. Finally, he challenges them to seek the explanation of his afflictions on other principles than the supposition of his guiltiness, asking them whether, in asserting his innocence, he would lie in their faces, and if he was not able to say whether his calamities were deserved or not? Job 6:28-30.

Did I say, Bring unto me? - Job proceeds to state that their conduct in this had been greatly aggravated by the fact that they had come voluntarily. He had not asked them to come. He had desired no gift; no favor.

22. Give a reward — For the purpose of bribing, say some, since the verb will bear such a rendering. The questions are evidently meant in derision.