Job 6:19

19 Traders from Tema look for water. Traveling merchants from Sheba also hope to find it.

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 they stop flowing when the dry season comes. They disappear from their stream beds when the weather warms up.
18 Groups of traders turn away from their usual paths. They go up into the dry and empty land. And they die there.
19 Traders from Tema look for water. Traveling merchants from Sheba also hope to find it.
20 They become troubled because they had expected to find some. But when they arrive at the stream beds, they don't find any water at all.
21 And now, my friends, you haven't helped me either. You see the horrible condition I'm in. And that makes you afraid.
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