Job 6 Study Notes

6:16-18 Like a seasonal stream, Job’s “brothers” (v. 15) were not dependable. When he really needed them, they were no help.

6:19 The oasis of Tema served as a trade center in northwestern Arabia.

6:20 Ashamed describes one who puts their trust in something untrustworthy.

6:21 Seeing Job’s dreadful condition, his friends were afraid to get close to him lest they also incur God’s judgment.

6:22-23 Job had never asked his friends for special favors. Surely they could at least be loyal.

6:24-26 The Hebrew word behind what I did wrong (shagah) speaks of unintentional sin. If his friends thought Job had erred, they should tell him honestly but gently, not in a painful manner. Job’s friends had not yet disproven his claim to innocence; they had only dismissed it.

6:27 Job compared his friends to merciless creditors who would take an orphan or sell a friend into slavery in payment for a debt (Ex 22:22; 2Kg 4:1; Am 2:6; 8:6).

6:28-29 The friends were not looking at him, repulsed either by his appearance or his words. Reconsider is literally “repent.”

6:30 Job found Eliphaz’s words tasteless (vv. 5-7), but his own words were not displeasing.