Job 6

Job 6:1-30 . REPLY OF JOB TO ELIPHAZ.

2. throughly weighed--Oh, that instead of censuring my complaints when thou oughtest rather to have sympathized with me, thou wouldst accurately compare my sorrow, and my misfortunes; these latter "outweigh in the balance" the former.

3. the sand--( Proverbs 27:3 ).
are swallowed up--See Margin [that is, "I want words to express my grief"]. But Job plainly is apologizing, not for not having had words enough, but for having spoken too much and too boldly; and the Hebrew is, "to speak rashly" [UMBREIT, GESENIUS, ROSENMULLER]. "Therefore were my words so rash."

4. arrows . . . within me--have pierced me. A poetic image representing the avenging Almighty armed with bow and arrows ( Psalms 38:2 Psalms 38:3 ). Here the arrows are poisoned. Peculiarly appropriate, in reference to the burning pains which penetrated, like poison, into the inmost parts--("spirit"; as contrasted with mere surface flesh wounds) of Job's body.
set themselves in array--a military image ( Judges 20:33 ). All the terrors which the divine wrath can muster are set in array against me ( Isaiah 42:13 ).

5. Neither wild animals, as the wild ass, nor tame, as the ox, are dissatisfied when well-supplied with food. The braying of the one and the lowing of the other prove distress and want of palatable food. So, Job argues, if he complains, it is not without cause; namely, his pains, which are, as it were, disgusting food, which God feeds him with (end of Job 6:7 ). But he should have remembered a rational being should evince a better spirit than the brute.

6. unsavoury--tasteless, insipid. Salt is a chief necessary of life to an Easterner, whose food is mostly vegetable.
the white--literally, "spittle" ( 1 Samuel 21:13 ), which the white of an egg resembles.

7. To "touch" is contrasted with "meat." "My taste refused even to touch it, and yet am I fed with such meat of sickness." The second clause literally, is, "Such is like the sickness of my food." The natural taste abhors even to touch insipid food, and such forms my nourishment. For my sickness is like such nauseous food [UMBREIT]. ( Psalms 42:3 , 80:5 , 102:9 ). No wonder, then, I complain.

8. To desire death is no necessary proof of fitness for death. The ungodly sometimes desire it, so as to escape troubles, without thought of the hereafter. The godly desire it, in order to be with the Lord; but they patiently wait God's will.

9. destroy--literally, "grind" or "crush" ( Isaiah 3:15 ).
let loose his hand--God had put forth His hand only so far as to wound the surface of Job's flesh ( Job 1:12 , 2:6 ); he wishes that hand to be let loose, so as to wound deeply and vitally.
cut me off--metaphor from a weaver cutting off the web, when finished, from the thrum fastening it to the loom ( Isaiah 38:12 ).

10. I would harden myself in sorrow--rather, "I would exult in the pain," if I knew that that pain would hasten my death [GESENIUS]. UMBREIT translates the Hebrew of "Let Him not spare," as "unsparing"; and joins it with "pain."
concealed--I have not disowned, in word or deed, the commands of the Holy One ( Psalms 119:46 , Acts 20:20 ). He says this in answer to Eliphaz' insinuation that he is a hypocrite. God is here called "the Holy One," to imply man's reciprocal obligation to be holy, as He is holy ( Leviticus 19:2 ).

11. What strength have I, so as to warrant the hope of restoration to health? a hope which Eliphaz had suggested. "And what" but a miserable "end" of life is before me, "that I should" desire to "prolong life"? [UMBREIT]. UMBREIT and ROSENMULLER not so well translate the last words "to be patient."

12. Disease had so attacked him that his strength would need to be hard as a stone, and his flesh like brass, not to sink under it. But he has only flesh, like other men. It must, therefore, give way; so that the hope of restoration suggested by Eliphaz is vain