Chapter Six

Job’s answering speech to Eliphaz’s speech. 1–7. The naturalness of lamentation. 8–27. The desire for death in view of the impossibility of bearing suffering, especially without support from friends. 28–30. A request to his friends to pay closer and more careful attention to his words.

Job 6:1. And Job answered and said: Job 6:2. Oh, that my vexation were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances! Job 6:3. For then it would be heavier than the sand of the seas; therefore my words are rash. Since Eliphaz begins his first speech with a reproach to Job for his despair (Job 4:5), the latter first of all tries to free himself from such an accusation. His “words are rash” (“ρήματα φαῦλα” LXX — evil; “λόγοι κατάπικροι” Symmachus — full of bitterness), but in no way “foolish” or “senseless,” as Delitzsch translates; compare verses 28–30); they are full of heat and irritability (verse 1, Hebrew “kasi,” “ὀργή” LXX; compare Job 5:2), but this is entirely understandable. Job’s complaints are natural in view of extraordinary suffering; their weight exceeds the weight of the sand of the sea (Prov 27:3; Sir 22:15), is more innumerable than the latter (Gen 22:17; Jer 33:22; Hab 1:9). Therefore, if one compares his impatience and heat with the calamities, it will appear to be small in comparison with them.

Job 6:4. For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me. The cause of such extraordinary suffering is that against him, Job, God himself has risen up. He, as a “warrior” (Jer 20:11), inflicts such terrible suffering upon him as is caused by poisoned, “burning” arrows (Ps 7:14).

Job 6:5. Does the wild donkey bray when it has grass, or does the ox bellow over its fodder? Job 6:6. Can something tasteless be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the white of an egg? Job 6:7. My soul refuses to touch them; they are like food that makes me sick. A figurative expression of the thought of the naturalness of complaints. If irrational animals (the donkey and the ox) do not express discontent without reason, then even more so will not a man, a rational being. As bread without salt and egg white are unpleasant, so too are complaints. And if nevertheless Job complains, it is obviously because he is forced to. He is forced by the fact that all the time he lives with an unbearably difficult (“loathsome” — verse 7) thought about the befallen sorrow, whose possibility he did not even imagine (“my soul refuses to touch” — verse 7) in the days of past happiness (Job 29:18-20).

Job 6:8. Oh, that I might have my request, and that God would grant my desire! Job 6:9. That it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off! In view of the weight of suffering, Job’s complaints are natural and understandable, and the desire for death connected with them (Job 3:3-11 and following) is also natural. The sooner it comes, the better, therefore Job wishes to die from the swift blow of God’s hand (verse 9; compare Isa 38:12-13).

Job 6:10. This would still be my consolation; I would even exult in unrelenting pain, for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. Speedy, imminent death would be a consolation for Job: he would die with the consciousness that he “has not concealed the words of the Holy One,” that he has remained true to his commandments (Job 23:12); and this consciousness is for him, as a godly man, a consolation (Ps 118:50).

Job 6:11. What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should prolong my life? Job 6:12. Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? Job 6:13. Have I any help in me, and is wisdom driven quite from me? The desire for speedy death expressed in verse 9 is further motivated by the fact that Job lacks the strength to bear the suffering (verse 13). He is an ordinary mortal man with flesh sensitive to pain (“not stone” and “not bronze” — verse 12); his patience may be exhausted. He could still bear and wish for life to continue if some way out of sorrow were foreseen; but there is none (verse 11). Patience cannot be supported by either physical or spiritual strength. Job 6:14-21. Finding no strength within himself to bear the suffering, Job hoped to draw them from the sympathetic attitude toward him on the part of friends, but was disappointed. The desire for death does not weaken.

Job 6:14. To the one who is fainting, kindness is owed from a friend, even if he has forsaken the fear of the Almighty. The Synodal reading of the second half of the verse represents an incorrect rendering of the text; the conjunction “ve” “and” is translated as “if only,” and an absent-in-the-original negation “not” is inserted (“did not forsake”). In a literal translation, the whole verse reads: “to the one who is fainting, kindness is owed from a friend, and he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.” The remaining obscurity even with such a rendering compels exegetes to resort to various interpretations. Delitzsch understands the conjunction “and” in the sense of “otherwise” and translates the whole passage thus: “kindness is owed from a friend to the fainting, otherwise he will forsake the fear of the Lord,” that is, a fainting person without support from friends may fall into despair. Others propose such a reading: “kindness is owed to the fainting, even (and) to one who has forsaken the fear of the Almighty,” that is, was actually guilty (Vigourou. A Manual for the Reading and Study of the Bible. Translated from the French edition with additional notes by V. V. Vorontsov. 2 vols., issue 2, p. 265). But such an understanding is not confirmed in the book of Job. His friends directly assert that the sufferings of the guilty cause not compassion but feeling of horror and trembling (Job 18:20). And if they hold such a view even at the moment of Job’s speech in chapter VI (Job 6:20), then he would hardly have asked them for compassion. It is more natural to adopt Delitzsch’s reading and understanding: Job seeks sympathy and support from friends so as not to fall into complete despair; he is close to it, since he himself is unable to encourage himself (compare verses 11–18).

Job 6:15. But my brothers have been treacherous as a torrent, as a torrent in a desert that runs dry. Job 6:16. that are dark because of ice, and where the snow hides, Job 6:17. but when the time grows warm, they cease to flow, and when it is hot, they disappear from their place. Job 6:18. The caravans turn aside from their way; they go up into the waste and perish. Job’s hope in his friends has not been fulfilled: they are “unfaithful” — they deceived his expectations. Their inconstancy in feeling reminds one of the inconstancy of desert torrent beds (χειμάρρους LXX — “winter torrent”), which are full of water only during the time of snow-melt, but when warmth sets in, they become shallow, and in heat they completely disappear, without a trace, lost in the sands of the desert.

Job 6:19. The caravans of Tema look to them, the travelers of Sheba hope for them; Job 6:20. but they are disappointed in their expectation; they come there and are ashamed. Waterless in summer, they disappoint the caravans expecting to find water in them (Hebrew expressions “archot” and “galakhot,” translated as “roads,” “paths,” mean “a train of travelers,” “a caravan”) of the Sabeans (see the commentary on verse 15 of chapter 1) and of Tema (the descendants of Ishmael from his son of this name, who lived in Arabia and traded with Egypt) (Gen 25:15; Isa 21:14).

Job 6:21. Thus you are nothing; you see something fearful and are afraid. Thus his former friends’ friendship has turned to nothing: upon seeing Job struck by terrible disease, they became frightened, recognized him as a sinner (Job 18:10), whose condition cannot evoke compassion.

Job 6:22. Did I say, ‘Bring something to me’? Or, ‘From your wealth offer a bribe for me’? Job 6:23. Or, ‘Save me from the hand of the adversary’? Or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless’? Job has done nothing to cause such a change in the attitude of his friends toward him: he neither has demanded nor demands any sacrifice of them that would put an end to friendship (Prov 25:17).

Job 6:24. Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have erred. Job 6:25. How painful are honest words! But what does your criticism prove? Job 6:26. Do you think to reprove words, when the speech of the desperate is wind? Job 6:27. You would even cast lots over the orphan, and bargain over your friend. His friends are wrong, having changed their feelings of friendship; they are also wrong in the role of accusers of Job. Job would agree with his friends if they pointed out actual faults in his words and utterances. He would remain silent before the truth (verses 24–25). But do his friends not condemn words belonging to the wind, the words of the desperate (the exact translation of verse 26 will be thus: “do you think to reprove words? But the words of one in despair belong to the wind”), that is, they think to prove his guilt from words that were accidentally uttered in a state of despair and excessive emotion, the exaggeration of which is obvious. Basing themselves only on such expressions, his friends treat Job as merciless creditors treat a young orphan, the heir of their debtor (“you would even cast lots over the orphan” — verse 27, more precisely: “you would cast lots regarding the orphan”); they are ready even to sell him (the Hebrew “tikru,” translated as “bargain,” comes from the verb “kara,” meaning both “to buy” — Deut 2:6; Hos 3:2. The comparison of friends to merchants in the second part of verse 27 fully corresponds to the comparison of them to creditors in the first).

Job 6:28. But now, please, look at me; for it is not fitting that I should lie to your face. Job’s words are full of heat, but they are entirely just.

Job 6:29. Turn back, let there be no injustice; turn back, my vindication is in this. Job 6:30. Is there injustice on my tongue? Cannot my mouth taste the difference between bad and good? Confident in his own rightness, fully able to distinguish falsehood from truth (verse 30), Job demands that his friends “turn back” — change their attitude toward him.