Job 6:21

21 So [this] is what you have now become [to me].^[a] When you see something dreadful, you are afraid.

Job 6:21 Meaning and Commentary

Job 6:21

For now ye are nothing
Once they seemed to be something to him; he thought them men wise, good, and religious, kind, bountiful, and tenderhearted; but now he found them otherwise, they were nothing to him as friends or as comforters in his distress; the "Cetib", or Scripture, is, as we read, and is followed by many; but the marginal reading is, "now ye are to it" ^F1; that is, ye are like to it, the brook whose waters he had been describing; so Jarchi interprets it; Mr. Broughton very agreeably takes in both, "so now ye are become like that, even nothing"; as that deceitful brook is no more, nor of any use to travellers fainting through thirst; so ye are like that, of no use and advantage to me in my affliction:

ye see [my] casting down;
from a state of prosperity to a state of adversity; from a pinnacle of honour, from being the greatest man in the east, a civil magistrate, and the head of a flourishing family, to the lowest degree of disgrace and dishonour; from wealth and riches to want and poverty; as well as saw the inward dejection of his mind, through the poisoned arrows of the Almighty within him:

and ye are afraid;
of the righteous judgments of God, taking these calamities to be such, and fearing the same or the like should fall on them, should they keep him company; or however should they patronize and defend him; and afraid also of being too near him, lest his breath, and the smell of him, should be infectious, and they should catch a distemper from him; or lest he should be expensive and troublesome to them.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (wl Mtyyh hte yk) "certe nunc fuistis illi", Bolducius; so Michaelis; "certe nunc estis similes illi", Pagninus, Vatablus, Mercerus.

Job 6:21 In-Context

19 The caravans of Tema look [for these streams]. The traveling merchants of Sheba hope for them.

20 They are ashamed because they had been confident [of finding water]. When they arrive there, they are frustrated.

21 So [this] is what you have now become [to me]. When you see something dreadful, you are afraid.

22 Have I ever said: Give me [something] or Pay a bribe for me from your wealth

23 or Deliver me from the enemy's power or Redeem me from the grasp of the ruthless?

Footnotes

• [a] Alt Hb tradition reads So you have now become nothing