Job 6
OGCQUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 6:1-30
Job responds to Eliphaz, but also to more than Eliphaz. Show how so.
Job finds no comfort from his friends so he turns to whom?
There are three kinds of suffering carefully distinguished in the scriptures. What are they? Discuss.
Name the three parts into which Job’s speech falls.
Job’s theme is not God’s indignation but something else. What?
Job admits he has been rash. How so? Why?
Why is the pain harder to bear merely because he believes in God?
Is God an archer? Does He aim arrows at us? Discuss.
Powerful distress imagery is used by Job. Cite two examples.
Something nauseating is implied in verses six and seven. What does the imagery say about the speech of Eliphaz?
Job’s strong and often request was for one thing. What was it?
What is meant by the expression let loose His hand in Job 6:9?
Job has one consolation in the midst of his suffering. What was it?
Job has lost hope. Of what? Why?
What is meant by the question of Job 6:13?
Job’s friends did not really care. What indicated this fact?
In what way were Job’s brethren like a brook?
How can we relate Job 6:16 to Job’s friends?
These friends are very unreliable. To what are they compared?
Job is very disappointed. To what is his disappointment compared?
Job has a real capacity for creating the metaphor. List the ones used in Job 6:15-23.
Job’s friends have been frightened and have forgotten. How so?
TODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION
Job
1-2 If my troubles and griefs were weighed on scales, 3 they would weigh more than the sands of the sea.
My wild words should not surprise you
4 Almighty God has shot me with arrows,
and their poison spreads through my body.
God has lined up his terrors against me.
5 A donkey is content when eating grass,
and a cow is quiet when eating hay.
6 But who can eat flat, unsalted food?
What taste is there in the white of an egg?
7 I have no appetite for food like that,
and everything I eat makes me sick.
8 Why won-’t God give me what I ask?
Why won-’t he answer my prayer?
9 I wish he would go ahead and kill me. 10 If I knew he would, I would leap for joy,
no matter how great my pain.
I know that God is holy; I have never opposed what he commands.
11 What strength do I have to keep on living?
Why go on living when I have no hope?
12 Am I made of stone? Is my body bronze? 13 I have no strength left to save myself;
there is nowhere I can turn for help.
14 In trouble like this I need loyal friends
whether I-’ve forsaken God or not.
15 But you, my friends, you deceive me like a stream
that goes dry when no rain comes.
16-17 The stream is full of snow and ice,
but in the heat they disappear, and the stream bed lies bare and dry.
18 Caravans get lost looking for water;
they wander and die in the desert.
19 Caravans from Sheba and Tema search, 20 but their hope dies beside dry streams. 21 You are like those streams to me;
you see my fate and are shocked.
22 Have I asked you to give me a gift,
or to bribe someone on my behalf,
23 or to save me from some enemy or tyrant? 24 All right, teach me; tell me my faults.
I will be quiet and listen to you.
25 An intelligent argument might convince me,
but you are talking nonsense.
26 You think I am talking nothing but wind;
then why do you answer my words of despair?
27 You would even roll dice for orphan slaves,
and make yourselves rich off your closest friends 1
28 Look me in the face. I won-’t lie. 29 You have gone far enough. Stop being unjust.
Don-’t condemn me. I-’m in the right.
30 But still you think I am lying
you think I can-’t tell right from wrong.
Job 6:1-7
C.
SEARCH FOR COMFORT AND JOB’S CONFRONTATION WITH GOD (Job 6:1, Job 7:21)
- There is adequate reason for his complaint. (Job 6:1-7)
TEXT 6:1-7
**6 Then Job answered and said,
2 Oh that my vexation were but weighed, And all my calamity laid in the balances!
3 For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas:
Therefore have my words been rash.
4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me,
The poison whereof my spirit drinketh up: The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.
5 Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass?
Or loweth the ox over his fodder?
6 Can that which hath no savor be eaten without salt?
Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
7 My soul refuseth to touch **them;
They are as loathsome food to me.
COMMENT 6:1-7 Dachau: Eine Welt-Ohne Gnade (Dachaua world without grace)
**Job 6:1**Job now replies to Eliphaz’s first speech. Job is responding to the three friends (Job 6:2-30; plurals in Job 6:24-29) rather than Eliphaz alone. First Job defends his first soliloquy (chp. 3), for which Eliphaz had rebuked him. Because of his suffering (Job 6:2-7) he desires to die (Job 6:8-10). Being without hope and sympathy from his friends, Job seeks the friendship of death. Why is life so difficult (Job 7:1 ff), especially since he is innocent? Receiving no comfort from the three wise men, Job turns to God (probably from Job 7:1, certainly from Job 7:7as remember is second singular). After an appeal to God’s compassion (Job 6:7-10), without restraint (Job 6:11) he asks why He plagues Job with impossible suffering (Job 6:12-21).[81] Job’s three friends are bound to him by a covenant of friendship (hesed).[82] Thus, they should not assume that Job is guilty of sin because of his suffering. Since they fail to express covenant concern and sympathy, Job turns to God. The speech falls into three parts: (1) Affirmation of his bitterness, (2) Disappointment in his friends (Job 6:14-30); and (3) Intensification of his complaint at his lot, and more open appeal against God’s treatment of him (Job 7:1-21).
[81] See the excellent exposition of three kinds of suffering which the scriptures carefully distinguish in Delitzsch, Job, Vol. I, 105ff. (1) Suffering of the godless; (2) Suffering of the righteous to intensify trust as fidelity; and (3) Suffering for witness. Compare this with the experience of a recent Job, C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed (Seabury, 1963).
[82] See Nelson Glueck’s exhaustive study, The Word hesed in Old Testament Usage, 1927, reprinted.
**Job 6:2**Job’s anguish (ha-asA. V. as vexationtranslated as impatience in Job 5:2 and displeasure in Job 10:17. The basic sense of the root is happen, hence accident, misfortune) is heavier than the sands of the seas. Job’s theme is not God’s indignation but his own undeserved suffering.
**Job 6:3**Job’s anguish and calamity correspond in parallelism; either of them would outweigh the sand. Job admits (therefore) that his words have been wild but not unjustified. His speech has been rash.[83]
[83] E. F. Sutcliffe, Biblica, XXI, 1950, 367ff, renders the Hebrew charged with grief.
**Job 6:4**Job now names God (Shaddaithe Almighty, used by Eliphaz Job 5:17) as the author of his misery. Job, no less than Eliphaz, believes the suffering comes from God; but rejects Eliphaz’s claim that Job is unrighteous, thus deserving of his plight. Why is the pain harder to bear merely because he believes in God? The imagery of God as an archer appears frequently in the Old TestamentDeu 32:23; Ezekiel 5:16; Psalms 7:13; Psalms 38:2; Psalms 64:7. The poisoned arrows mentioned here are not referred to elsewhere in the Old Testament. The word translated poisonvenomis the same word as that used of the deaf adder in Psalms 58:4. Oil-soaked materials covering arrowheads were used in war. The terrors of God assault Job’s very existence; they wear me down (A. V. array against me),[84] he boldly asserts. Paul uses the imagery of the flaming darts of Satan in Ephesians 6:16.
[84] G. R. Driver, Vetus Testamentum Supplement III, 1955, 73; also Saydon, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, XXIII, 1961, 252.
**Job 6:5**Using powerful distress imagery (wild ass in distress for a lack of foodJer 14:6). Job suggests that it would be better to identify the cause of his suffering rather than explain it. The wild ass brays is used only here and Job 30:7, where it describes the agonizing cries of social outcasts. The second descriptive word is the verb translated loweth in A. V. It is used only here and in 1 Samuel 6:12, where it is used of cows deprived of their calves. Even the animals understand what Eliphaz fails to comprehend.
**Job 6:6-7**Though the text is difficult in these uncertain verses, something nauseating is implied. Eliphaz’s counsel is tasteless; it lacks the salt of sympathy. The A. V.‘S phrase the white of an egg might better be understood as the slime of purslane (so R. S. V., Rowley, Driver and Gray). The purslane is a leguminous plant which secretes mucilaginous jelly. Job rejects Eliphaz’s explanation as he (nepheshsoul) would reject tasteless food. In Hebrew psychology, nephesh (soul) is the seat of desireDeu 24:15; Hosea 4:8; and, in particularof appetiteDeu 14:26; Deuteronomy 23:25; Isaiah 29:8; Micah 7:1; and Proverbs 23:2. The condition of Job’s flesh[85] (lehem literally bread but here is flesh or meat), like Eliphaz’s comfort, is sickeningJob 7:5; Job 18:13; Job 30:30.
[85] There is no need to emend the text as does Kissane et al. The they refers to Eliphaz’s arguments. Words and lehem in its present parallel structure means Job’s flesh or body.
Job 6:8-13
- In his wasted condition, death is desirable. (Job 6:8-13)
TEXT 6:8-13
**8 Oh that I might have my request;
And that God would grant **me **the thing that I long for!
9 Even that it would please God to crash me;
That he would let loose his hand, and cat me off!
10 And be, it still my consolation,
Yea, let me exult in pain that spareth not, That I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
11 What is my strength, that I should wait?
And what Is mine end, that I should be patient?
12 Is my strength the strength of stones?
Or is my flesh of brass?
13 Is it not that I have no help in me,
And that wisdom is driven quite from me?**
COMMENT 6:8-13
**Job 6:8**Job’s entreaty is that he be allowed to dieJob 3:11. No facile repentance can remove Job’s sickness unto death. All that he desires is the healing of a hurried deathchp. 3.
**Job 6:9**Oh that God, would be willing to free this prisoner of pain (cf. Isaiah 53:10). The Hebrew which is translated let loose his hand is a verb used of setting prisoners freePsa 105:20; Psalms 146:7.[86]
[86] Job has no awareness of guiltcompare with Lady MacBeth. The haunting, enslaving power of guilt is absent from Job’s existential angst. Note also this powerful imagery in C. Fry’s The Sleep of Prisoners. An enslaved spirit is more tortuously imprisoned than a shackled body. See Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; The Gulag Archipelago; and compare with Paul’s imprisonments and Bonhoeffer’S.
**Job 6:10**Job has one consolation that is that he has not betrayed God’s trust; that is, even though called on to endure such severe punishment. No accusing conscience would impair his comfort in death (Driver). Job has been and still is an obedient servant to the Holy One of IsraelIsa 40:25; Hebrews 3:3.
**Job 6:11**Job can endure no more. Wait? For what? Eliphaz’s promised blessings. What does the future hold for Job?
**Job 6:12**Men of stone and bronze feel nothing. Job is flesh and blood whose power to resist pain is all but exhausted.
**Job 6:13**This verse contains an emphatic interrogative particle as in Numbers 17:28, and the question form is to express strong avowal, which means that it is a fact that I do not have within me the power to help myself. Naturalistic humanism would not care for Job’s pessimism. All human power to alleviate Job’s suffering is already banished from him.[87] Job is not thinking of rescue from suffering but of the strength to bear the pain.
[87] For analysis of this question form, see M. Dahood, Biblica et Orientalia XVII, 1965,13; and E. F. Sutcliffe, Biblica, XXXI, 1950, 368ff.
Job 6:14-23
- Bitter disappointment from his friends, who are unreasonably hard (Job 6:14-23)
TEXT 6:14-23
**14 To him that is ready to faint kindness **should be showed **from his friend;
Even to him that forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.
15 My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook,
As the channel of brooks that pass away;
16 Which are black by reason of the ice,**
And **wherein the snow hideth itself:
17 What time they wax warm, they vanish;
When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.
18 The caravans **that travel **by the way of them turn aside;
They go up into the waste, and perish.
19 The caravans of Tema looked,
The companies of Sheba waited for them.
20 They were put to shame because they had hoped;
They came thither, and were confounded.
21 For now ye are nothing;
Ye see a terror, and are afraid.
22 Did I say, Give unto me?
Or, Offer a present for me of your substance?
23 Or, Deliver me from the adversary’s hand?
Or, Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors?**
COMMENT 6:14-23
**Job 6:14**The text of only three words literally says For the faintingfrom his friendloyalty. Job attacks his would-be sympathizers with this chargeyour lack of sympathy reveals your lack of true covenant concern, i.e., righteousness. Kindness (hesedcovenant love) is due to a friend. If his friends really cared, they would treat Job with kindness, not groundless insinuations of his guilt.
**Job 6:15**Note that Job still calls the three friends brethren, not foes. But he describes them as a brook (nachal), a stream which is a raging torrent during the rainy season, but dried up during the summer, when one really needs help. The streams of sympathy have dried upHer. Job 15:18.
**Job 6:16**This verse describes a thaw which breaks the ice and sends the waters raging downward. The phrase hideth itself means to melt.[88]
[88] See M. Dahood, Biblical 33,1952, 206; also Biblica, 43, 1962, 65.
**Job 6:17**The A. V. contains a very obtuse translationwax warm (wax from old German waxento grow, the root zarab is found only here and means seared or scorched). When the snow and ice melt, they (the torrents) disappear,[89] or are extinguished, Job 18:5-6; the friends are as unreliable as a wadi which is empty.
[89] G. R. Driver, Zeitschriftfur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, N. S., XXIV, 1953,216ff.
**Job 6:18**The travelers (A. V. caravans) expect to find water in the desert, but coming to them they find none; they soon perish under the scorching sun. This is Job’s blistering attack on his friends. This disappointment describes Job’s despair.
**Job 6:19**Tema is an oasis Southeast of the head of the Gulf of AqabaIsa 21:14; Jeremiah 25:23. Sheba is South Arabia, which is the home of the Sabean raiders (chp. Job 1:15), but here they are merchants.[90]
[90] W. F. Albright, Bulletin the American Society of Oriental Research, 163, 1961, 41, n. 24.
**Job 6:20**The caravans from the south sift us to dry oases. Job’s friends have been compared to dry wadi and now dry oases. There is no possibility that they can be of help to him.
**Job 6:21**There is a play on words hereyou see (tir-‘u) and you fear (tire-‘u) 2 Samuel 10:19. The sight of Job in his desperate and horrible condition has frightened his friends out of their wits and caused them to forget their covenant (hesed) of loyalty to him. His oppressors are tyrants who would sell him, but not redeem him.
**Job 6:22-23**Job has not asked for money (which their covenant would have obliged), only friendship. Jeremiah cries, I have not lent or borrowed, yet everyone curses me, Jeremiah 15:10. Job responds here with strong sarcasm. He has not asked for charity, though he has lost everything; he asks only for concern.
Job 6:24-30
- Their words are academic. Where is his sin? (Job 6:24-30)
TEXT 6:24-30
**24 Teach me, and I will hold my peace;
And cause me to understand wherein I have erred.
25 How forcible are words of uprightness!
But your reproof, what doth it reprove?
26 Do ye think to reprove words,
Seeing that the speeches of one that is desperate are as wind?
27 Yea, ye would cast **lots **upon the fatherless,
And make merchandise of your friend.
28 Now therefore be pleased to look upon me;
For surely I shall not lie to your face.
29 Return, I pray you, let there be no injustice;
Yea, return again, my cause is righteous.
30 Is there injustice on my tongue?
Cannot my taste discern mischievous things?**
COMMENT 6:24-30
**Job 6:24**If his friends can help him, he will listen in silence for their sympathetic words. He only asks for proof, not mere assertions, concerning his guilt. For discussions of inadvertent and presumptuous sins, see Leviticus 4; Numbers 15:22-29; Psalms 19:13.
**Job 6:25**The A. V. translates nimras as how forcible. It is used here and occurs again only in Job 16:3.[91] Job asks once more for what specific sin do you accuse me? Your arrogant generalities are meaningless, and only provoke me to more pain.
[91] G. R. Driver, Journal of Theological Studies, XXIX, 1927-a, 394ff, argues for be bitter.
**Job 6:26**Are Job’s words but wind? His friends have only been concerned to rebuke Job for his expression of his grief, instead of comforting him by identifying the cause of his words. You think that your words are correct and hold the words of him who is in anguish to be vanity. One that is desperate[92] is one that is as hopeless (Hebrew a despairing manIsa 57:10; Jeremiah 2:25; and Jeremiah 18:12) as wind, meaning that they will soon be blown away; then we can forget them.
[92] Reichert, Job, Soncino, p. 28.
**Job 6:27**Eliphaz’s complacent lecturing is inhumane. As a healer, he is more interested in the disease than the patient. Though the general sense is evident, the phrase cast lots is a problem, as the Hebrew contains no word lots, but see Job 6:14-23. They bargain overmake merchandise oftheir friends. Make merchandise, barter, is used in 40:30 where the same verb is used of fish dealers (wholesalers) haggling over Leviathan. The same verb is used in Hosea 3:2 concerning Hosea’s purchase of a prostitute on the slave marketDeu 2:6. Job is suffering, while they are haggling with him as an object in a consumer trainee program.
**Job 6:28**The verse is in the form of an oathI swear I will not lie. But his friends have turned from him, unable to bear either his physical appearance or his violent words.
**Job 6:29**Return (Heb. subureturn you) does not mean that his friends are departing from him, but rather that he is asking them to change their attitude toward him. The A. V. translation my cause is right is possible but unclear. Dhorme reveals the meaning in his translationmy righteousness is still in tact.[93] Job still maintains his innocence, even in his furnace of affliction.
[93] Dhorme, Job, p. 94.
**Job 6:30**Job says if there was poison on my tongue, would I not know it? Cannot my palate (Hebrew) discern mischievous things, i.e., am I not able to discern the flavor of my own suffering? Neither his palate nor his moral integrity have lost their powers of discernment.