Job 6:19

19 Merchant caravans from Tema see them and expect water, tourists from Sheba hope for a cool drink.

Job 6:19 Meaning and Commentary

Job 6:19

The troops of Tema looked
A city in Arabia, so called from Tema a son of Ishmael, ( Genesis 25:15 ) ; these troops or companies were travelling ones, either that travelled to Tema, or that went from thence to other places for merchandise, see ( Isaiah 21:13 Isaiah 21:14 ) ; these, as they passed along in their caravans, as the Turks their successors now do, looked at those places where in the wintertime they observed large waters frozen over, and covered with snow, and expected to have been supplied from thence in the summer season, for the extinguishing of their thirst:

the companies of Sheba waited for them:
another people in Arabia, which went in companies through the deserts, where being in great want of water for their refreshment, waited patiently till they came to those places, where they hoped to find water to relieve them, which they had before marked in the wintertime.

Job 6:19 In-Context

17 But by midsummer they're dry, gullies baked dry in the sun.

18 Travelers who spot them and go out of their way for a drink, end up in a waterless gulch and die of thirst.

19 Merchant caravans from Tema see them and expect water, tourists from Sheba hope for a cool drink.

20 They arrive so confident - but what a disappointment! They get there, and their faces fall!

21 And you, my so-called friends, are no better - there's nothing to you! One look at a hard scene and you shrink in fear.