Job Chapter 6 Review

 

Chapter 6

Job begins to answer Eliphaz:

Job 6:1 KJV  But Job answered and said,Job 6:2 KJV  Oh that my grief were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! 

At the end of chapter 5, I spoke of my experience of speaking with people in crisis in my 20+ years of working on a suicide hotline, and how the temptation to rush to problem solving must be avoided.  Here Job begins speaking, but he doesn’t respond or mention Eliphaz’s words.  His first words, “Oh that my grief were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together!”.  He’s saying that no one is hearing him, and considering what he has gone through.  Job needs to speak and be heard, without judgement, or someone offering simplistic solutions to problems, which have no answer.  Yes, God is good.  Yes, God provides, but that won’t bring back Job’s children, and his other huge losses.  Job is outraged, and in despair.  He feels rightly, that he is being unjustly persecuted.  He needs to work through this before he can begin to heal.

The word above translated ‘grief’ (Strong’s H3708) is in verse 5:2 translated ‘wrath’.

Job 5:2 KJV  For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one.

Again, I don’t understand. . . one word taking the meaning of ‘grief’, and ‘wrath’.  Here is the list of how Strong’s H3708 is translated:

anger ( 2 ) angry ( 1 ) 

grief ( 6 ) indignation ( 1 ) 

provocation ( 3 ) provocations ( 1 ) 

sore ( 1 ) Sorrow ( 2 ) 

spite ( 1 ) wrath ( 4 )

If I say, “I’m H3708”, if we are in person standing next to one another, you can judge from my demeanor if I’m sad or angry, but if I write those same words, how do you know?  You’re forced to guess or measure the connotation of the surrounding sentences.  It seems to me a word with such a potential wide variety of meaning, really has virtually no meaning of its own. 

The end of verse 2, “and my calamity laid in the balances together!”

Job wants everything he has undergone to be considered as a unit, not individually.  Any individual loss he sustained, would be bad enough, the effect of the sum total of them is far greater than the individual parts.  What he endured was truly unimaginable.

Job 6:3 KJV  For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up.

This Hebrew word, Strong’s H3886, only appears twice in the Bible.  The sense of it seems to be, ‘my words have been rash due to the magnitude of my losses.’

Job 6:4 KJV  For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.

As bad as what has happened to Job, even worse is the awareness that these events are from God.  It’s hard for me to believe, that in the same situation, that I wouldn’t be totally focused on, and overwhelmed by the events.  This is a testimony to the righteousness of Job.

Job 6:5 KJV  Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder? Job 6:6 KJV  Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

Even wild animals complain when they lack.  None of God’s creatures grumble when they are satisfied.  My life is without color or flavor.  All joy has been taken from me.

Job 6:7 KJV  The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat.

Those things I most feared, are now my daily existence.

Job 6:8 KJV  Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I long for! Job 6:9 KJV  Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off! Job 6:10 KJV  Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. Job 6:11 KJV  What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?

Until this passage, It seemed as if Job might be coming a bit out of his total despair, but here he slips back into longing for his own death.

Job 6:12 KJV  Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?

Job asking the question.  He is being assailed like a fortress. He is not stone or  metal.  Job's flesh, like all flesh is weak.

Job 6:13 KJV  Is not my help in me? and is wisdom driven quite from me?

The Hebrew is unclear here to Hebrew authorities.  It may be, ‘I am alone and empty of wisdom.’ 

Job 6:14 KJV  To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.

The sense here is, “kindness and sympathy should be shown to one who is under duress, even to one who is turning their back on God.”

Job 6:15 KJV  My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;

This is difficult to understand to those not living in an arid land.  In the desert during one of the infrequent rains, a short lived stream will arise, which gives the illusion of an abundance of water.  In a few days the water is gone.

Job 6:16 KJV  Which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid: Job 6:17 KJV  What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place. 

The streams mentioned in verse 15, if they arise in the winter, they are frozen solid with black ice.  When the warm months arrive, and the need for water is the greatest, they disappear.

Job 6:18 KJV  The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish. Job 6:19 KJV  The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them. Job 6:20 KJV  They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed.

This is confusing.  The paths mentioned here are not of the streams in verse 17, but appear to be of caravans that the troops of Tema, and the companies of Sheba looked for, which follow streams in the hopes of finding water.  The troops and companies looked for the caravans, but they had perished in the desert because the streams had run dry.

Job 6:21 KJV  For now ye are nothing; ye see my casting down, and are afraid. 

Comparing his three friends to the streams which dry up in the season when they are most needed.  His friends are as dry streams in the season when Job needed them most.  Reading between the lines, when things were well with him, when he was rich and throwing banquets his friends were with him offering support, but now seeing that he is being tried by God, that he is in a dry land, they have abandoned him.

Job 6:22 KJV  Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance? Job 6:23 KJV  Or, Deliver me from the enemy's hand? or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty?

Job asked ahead of time for nothing from his friends, and he asks for nothing now,

Job 6:24 KJV  Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred.

Eliphaz has cast theoreticals at Job, vague criticisms without concrete examples. Job asks for true instruction, and he will be quiet.  Open my eyes, show me where I am blind.

Job 6:25 KJV  How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove? Job 6:26 KJV  Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?

Job in the first of these two verses contrasts his friends' words with ‘right’ words and their arguing, implying that Eliphaz's words are without force, and therefore may be considered, not ‘right’ words.

Keeping on the subject of ‘words’, Job asks are you convicting me due to my words, and speeches, and not due to my actions?  Job admits he is desperate, and in anguish therefore his words may be considered non-substantive. . . empty in his despair. . . they are as wind due to his horror at what has happened to him.

Job 6:27 KJV  Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye dig a pit for your friend.

The thought here may be, when a man dies with great debt, the creditors to his estate may come after the now fatherless child to sell him into slavery for the father’s debts.

The second half of the verse brings to mind Joseph's brothers casting him into a pit, prior to selling him into slavery.  Surely a horrible abuse.  Job equates his friends' words and lack of understanding with throwing him into a deep pit from which he cannot escape.

Job 6:28 KJV  Now therefore be content, look upon me; for it is evident unto you if I lie.

Have the decency to  look me in the eye.  I will not lie to your face.

Job 6:29 KJV  Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; yea, return again, my righteousness is in it.

Let us change direction, and consider this again.  I am not being false with you.  I am being truthful with you.

Job 6:30 KJV  Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?

Am I so deceived that I cannot see wickedness in my own words?