Job Replies: My Complaint Is Just
1 Job showed that his complaints are not causeless. 8 He wished for death, wherein he is assured of comfort. 14 He reproved his friends of unkindness.
Job 6:1 Then Job replied:
Chapters 6 and 7 record Job’s reply to Eliphaz. His first response is to justify the bitterness of his complaint. However, the tone of his discourse changes. Instead of the almost feverish, doubting agony of the initial utterance he exhibits a spirit that may be characterized as mild, plaintive, and in some measure composed.
Job 6:2 “If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales!
Eliphaz had criticized Job for his “vexation.” Job begins his defence by referring to this accusation.
Weighed. Job expresses the wish that balances might be provided and his vexation be placed over against his calamity. Bitter as his complaint had been, he felt that it was small compared with the distress that occasioned it.
Job 6:3 It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas— no wonder my words have been impetuous.
Sand of the sea. A simile describing, in this case, great weight (see Prov. 27:3). Job concedes a certain extravagance in his language, but he feels that his rash words are justified by his terrible suffering.
Job 6:4 The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God’s terrors are marshalled against me.
Arrows of the Almighty. A figurative expression describing calamities generally (see Deut. 32:23; Ps. 7:13; 38:2; Eze. 5:16). Job here specifically names God as the author of his trouble. This thought seems greatly to add to his suffering, for he cannot understand why God should treat him thus.
Poison. It was common in some countries for warriors to fight with arrows dipped in poison (see Ps. 7:13).
Marshalled. A picture representing Job’s evils arrayed against him like the forces of a hostile enemy.
Job 6:5 Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass, or an ox bellow when it has fodder?
The braying of asses or the lowing of oxen indicates that some need of these animals has not been met. Similarly, Job’s complaints stem from what he considers to be a legitimate cause.
Job 6:6 Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the sap of the mallow?
Job considers his complaints a justifiable expression of repugnance at the diet on which he has been called to subsist.
Job 6:7 I refuse to touch it; such food makes me ill.
Job 6:8 “Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant what I hope for,
The longing for death (ch. 3:11–19). The thing that I long for. Literally, “my request,” or “my wish.”
Job 6:9 that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut off my life!
The idea seems to be that of cutting off the thread of life as the weaver cuts the finished material from the loom.
Job 13:10 He would surely call you to account if you secretly showed partiality.
There is something pathetic about the earnestness of Job’s longing for death. If he had been a pagan, he might have talked of suicide. His attitude toward life precludes such an idea. He must depend on God to order his life. He must submit to God, although he feels that his troubles are God’s arrows, tipped with venom. Even though he desires death, he shows not the slightest evidence of taking the matter in his own hands. myself. The meaning of this clause is uncertain. The word here translated “harden” does not occur elsewhere in the Bible. The LXX renders it “leap,” but with an entirely different context, rendering the verse, “Let the grave be my city, upon the walls of which I have leaped. I will not shrink from it; for I have not denied the holy words of my God.” Concealed. Or, “disowned.” Job has no fear of death. He has confidence in his innocence. He is conscious of no denial of God.
Job 6:11 “What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient?
Eliphaz has predicted a happier future (ch. 5:17–27). Job replies, “I do not have enough strength to wait for such promised blessings.” Is there sufficient purpose in further prolonging such a miserable existence?
Job 6:12 Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze?
To endure for an extended period such affliction would require a body of brass and the strength of stone.
Job 6:13 Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me?
The question is an acknowledgment of Job’s feeling of utter frustration.
Job 6:14 “Anyone who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
Job 6:15 But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow
Job compares his friends to a stream which is swollen and turbulent in winter, when its waters are not so sorely needed, but which dries up and disappears in the heat of summer. These streams, known as wadis, are common in the Eastern countries. The fullness, strength, and noise of these temporary streams in winter are compared to the attitude of Job’s friends toward him in the days of his prosperity.
The drying up of the waters at the approach of summer is compared to the failure of these friends in time of affliction.
Job 6:16 when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow,
Job 6:17 but that stop flowing in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels.
When the water is needed, in the heat of the summer, the streams disappear.
Job 6:18 Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go off into the wasteland and perish.
Job 6:19 The caravans of Tema look for water, the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope.
Tema. A well-known oasis in northwest Arabia.
Look. The picture is of caravans approaching the wadis, eagerly hoping to find water.
Job 6:20 They are distressed, because they had been confident; they arrive there, only to be disappointed.
Job 6:21 Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see something dreadful and are afraid.
Job makes sure that his friends understand his illustration. He is disappointed when he comes to them for comfort and finds none. They are like the dry beds where refreshing streams should have flowed. They had come with good intentions, meaning to comfort and console him, but when they saw his condition, they feared to show too much friendliness. They regarded him as an object of divine vengeance and were afraid lest, if they showed him sympathy, they might incur punishment.
Job 6:22 Have I ever said, ‘Give something on my behalf, pay a ransom for me from your wealth, Job is not pleading for material benefits from his friends.
Job 6:23 deliver me from the hand of the enemy, rescue me from the clutches of the ruthless’?
Job is not asking for vengeance upon his enemies, nor that his friends retrieve his stolen property.
Job 6:24 “Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong.
Eliphaz had insinuated that Job had sinned. However, no specific accusations had been made regarding Job’s life. True, his friends found fault with his words, but these merely reflected his despair. Job challenged his friends to present concrete evidence as proof that his suffering was a direct punishment for sin.
Job 6:25 How painful are honest words! But what do your arguments prove?
Job argues that words that proceed from sincerity are effective. But he asks, what force do your words have? Your reasoning is defective because your premises are false.
Job 6:26 Do you mean to correct what I say, and treat my desperate words as wind?
Job says, in effect: “Will you fasten on my words, spoken in the excitement of passion, rather than on the fact of my blameless conduct?”
Words as wind? Job recognizes that his words have been expressions of despair. The text as it stands suggest that, like the wind, his speeches have been characterized by sound and fury rather than by calm trust and judgment. The literal translation suggests that his words were intended to be picked up and carried away by the wind, not to be taken as requiring reproof.
Job 6:27 You would even cast lots for the fatherless and barter away your friend.
Lots are cast upon the orphan children who are being sold as slaves to pay the debts of their deceased father. The words are a harsh indictment of the friends.
Job 6:28 “But now be so kind as to look at me. Would I lie to your face?
“Look me in the eye,” Job says, “and judge from my countenance whether I am telling the truth.” Job’s conscious innocence expresses itself in this challenge.
Job 6:29 Relent, do not be unjust; reconsider, for my integrity is at stake.
You have unfairly assumed my guilt. Job is urging his friends to seek other explanations for his calamity. He insists that a further investigation would vindicate his righteousness.
Job 6:30 Is there any wickedness on my lips? Can my mouth not discern malice?
Job is endeavoring to vindicate the soundness of his moral judgments. His sincerity cannot be doubted, but in placing too much confidence in his own sense of values, Job was on dangerous ground. God alone is competent to estimate man’s moral and spiritual worth. Job later admitted that he had uttered that which he understood not (ch. 42:3).