Job 6:6-30

6 Shall bread be eaten without salt? or again, is there taste in empty words?

7 For my wrath cannot cease; for I perceive my food as the smell of a lion loathsome.

8 For oh that he would grant , and my petition might come, and the Lord would grant my hope!

9 Let the Lord begin and wound me, but let him not utterly destroy me.

10 Let the grave be my city, upon the walls of which I have leaped: I will not shrink from it; for I have not denied the holy words of my God.

11 For what is my strength, that I continue? what is my time, that my soul endures?

12 Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?

13 Or have I not trusted in him? but help is from me.

14 Mercy has rejected me; and the visitation of the Lord has disregarded me.

15 My nearest relations have not regarded me; they have passed me by like a failing brook, or like a wave.

16 They who used to reverence me, now have come against me like snow or congealed ice.

17 When it has melted at the approach of heat, it is not known what it was.

18 Thus I also have been deserted of all; and I am ruined, and become an outcast.

19 Behold the ways of the Thaemanites, ye that mark the paths of the Sabaeans.

20 They too that trust in cities and riches shall come to shame.

21 But ye also have come to me without pity; so that beholding my wound ye are afraid.

22 What? have I made any demand of you? or do I ask for strength from you,

23 to deliver me from enemies, or to rescue me from the hand of the mighty ones?

24 Teach ye me, and I will be silent: if in anything I have erred, tell me.

25 But as it seems, the words of a true man are vain, because I do not ask strength of you.

26 Neither will your reproof cause me to cease my words, for neither will I endure the sound of your speech.

27 Even because ye attack the fatherless, and insult your friend.

28 But now, having looked upon your countenances, I will not lie.

29 Sit down now, and let there not be unrighteousness; and unite again with the just.

30 For there is no injustice in my tongue; and does not my throat meditate understanding?

Job 6:6-30 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 6

This and the following chapter contain Job's answer to the speech of Eliphaz in the two foregoing; he first excuses his impatience by the greatness of his afflictions, which, if weighed by good and impartial hands, would be found to be heavier than the sand of the sea, and which words were wanting to express, Job 6:1-3; and the reason why they were so heavy is given, they being the arrows and terrors of the Almighty, Job 6:4; and by various similes he shows that his moans and complaints under them need not seem strange and unreasonable, Job 6:5-7; and what had been said not being convincing to him, he continues in the same sentiment and disposition of mind, and wishes to be removed by death out of his miserable condition, and gives his reasons for it, Job 6:8-13; and though his case was such as required pity from his friends, yet this he had not from them, but represents them as deceitful, and as having sadly disappointed him, and therefore he neither hoped nor asked for anything of them, Job 6:14-23; and observes that their words and arguments were of no force and weight with him, but harmful and pernicious, Job 6:24-27; and in his turn gives them some exhortations and instructions, and signifies that he was as capable of discerning between right and wrong as they, with which this chapter is concluded, Job 6:28-30.