Job 6

Translator Notes

1. The standard dialogue formula va-ya'an ('and he answered') introduces Job's response to Eliphaz's first speech (chapters 4-5). The verb 'answered' in Hebrew does not require a prior question — it simply means 'responded' or 'took up speech.'

Translator Notes

1. The verb shaqol ('to weigh') is doubled for emphasis — 'truly, thoroughly weighed.' Job wants an objective measurement of his suffering. The mo'znayim ('balances, scales') evoke the ancient image of justice as precise measurement. Job's argument is mathematical: if you could quantify my pain, you would understand my words.

Translator Notes

1. The verb la'u is debated — it may mean 'swallowed up' (choked, unable to speak) or 'rash, wild' (spoken without restraint). In context, Job seems to be defending his earlier outcry: his words sound extreme because his suffering is extreme. The sand of the seas is a standard biblical image for what cannot be counted or measured (Genesis 22:17, 32:12).

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. Shaddai ('the Almighty') is the divine name most associated with overwhelming power. The imagery of poisoned arrows was known in the ancient Near East — arrows were sometimes dipped in toxic substances. The verb ya'arkhuni ('they array themselves against me') is military terminology for troops lining up in battle order. Job feels surrounded by divine hostility on every side.

Translator Notes

1. Job argues from nature: animals cry out only when they lack something. His outcry is not irrational; it is the natural response of a creature in genuine need. The pere' ('wild donkey') was a symbol of untamed freedom in the ancient Near East. Even this free creature is silent when satisfied. Job's logic is: if I am crying out, something is genuinely wrong.

Translator Notes

1. The exact identity of the foods is debated. Tafel means 'tasteless, unseasoned.' The second food, rir challamut, is traditionally rendered 'white of an egg' but more likely refers to the mucilaginous sap of a mallow or purslane plant — a bland, slimy substance. Job's point: Eliphaz's words are like unseasoned, tasteless food — technically present but offering nothing nourishing.

Translator Notes

1. The metaphor continues: what Eliphaz offers as comfort is repulsive to Job. The phrase divei lachmi ('sickness of my bread') suggests food that induces nausea. Job's appetite — both physical and spiritual — rejects what his friends are serving.

Translator Notes

1. The formula mi yitten ('who will give?' = 'if only!') expresses intense longing. Job's 'request' (she'elatah) is about to be revealed in the next verses: he wants God to end his life. The word tiqvah ('hope, expectation') carries painful irony — Job's only hope is for death.

Translator Notes

1. The verb dakha ('crush') describes total physical destruction. 'Release his hand' means to let his hand swing freely — to stop restraining the blow. Job wants God to finish what he has started. The verb batsa' ('cut off') can mean to sever or to break off, like snapping a thread.

Translator Notes

1. Despite wanting death, Job clings to one consolation: he has not concealed or denied (kichad) the words of God. The verb salad is rare and likely means 'to leap, to exult.' The paradox is striking — Job's comfort in death would be the knowledge that he remained honest about God's own words even while suffering. The title Qadosh ('the Holy One') emphasizes God's utter distinctness.

Translator Notes

1. Job asks two rhetorical questions exposing the absurdity of patience. He has no strength reserves to draw on, and his 'end' (qits — outcome, future) offers nothing worth enduring for. The verb ya'chel ('to wait, hope') is the same word used for patient endurance before God.

Translator Notes

1. Job insists he is human, not mineral. Stone and bronze do not feel pain. Eliphaz's counsel assumes Job can simply endure, but Job's flesh is not bronze — it breaks, it bleeds, it feels every arrow described in verse 4.

Translator Notes

1. Tushiyyah ('resourcefulness, effective wisdom, sound judgment') is a wisdom-literature term describing the ability to navigate problems successfully. Job admits that his inner resources are exhausted — the very capacity that should help him cope has been expelled.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. This verse is syntactically difficult and has been translated in many ways. The mas ('one who is melting, dissolving, despairing') describes the sufferer. The core argument is clear: withholding chesed from a suffering friend is a violation of the fear of Shaddai. Job elevates friendship loyalty to a theological obligation.

Translator Notes

1. The wadi metaphor begins here and continues through verse 20. A nachal is a streambed that runs with water during the rainy season but dries up completely in summer heat. The verb bagdu ('they have betrayed, dealt treacherously') is strong covenant-breaking language — the same verb used for marital unfaithfulness in Malachi 2:14-16.

Translator Notes

1. The wadi in winter is dark, turbid, rushing with snowmelt and ice — overflowing with apparent abundance. This is the friend in easy times: full, visible, impressive.

Translator Notes

1. The verb zarav ('to scorch, dry up') describes the evaporation process. The parallel verb nidakhu ('they are extinguished') treats the wadis like flames that go out. The 'place' (maqom) they vanish from is exactly where travelers expected to find water — the wadi is defined by its location, and the location is now empty.

Translator Notes

1. The subject shifts to the travelers who depend on the wadis. The 'paths of their way' describes caravan routes that detour toward known water sources. The tohu ('wasteland, void, chaos') is the same word used in Genesis 1:2 for the formless void — the travelers enter nothingness. They perish not from attack but from misplaced trust.

Translator Notes

1. Tema and Sheba were major trading peoples of Arabia. Tema was located in northwest Arabia along major caravan routes; Sheba was in southern Arabia (modern Yemen). These are experienced desert travelers who know where water should be — and even they are deceived by the empty wadis.

Translator Notes

1. The verb bosh ('to be ashamed, put to shame') describes the devastating experience of arriving at a place you trusted and finding it empty. The parallel verb chafar ('to be ashamed, confounded') intensifies the humiliation. This is Job's portrait of what his friends have done to him — he came to them expecting sustenance and found nothing.

Translator Notes

1. Job applies the wadi metaphor directly: 'you have become lo' — 'nothing' or 'to it' (the empty wadi). The friends see Job's chattat ('terror, dismay, devastating condition') and respond with fear rather than compassion. Their theology cannot process what they are seeing, so they pull away.

Translator Notes

1. Job's rhetorical questions are devastating in their simplicity. He has not asked for money, rescue, or favors. The shochad ('bribe, gift') suggests he has not even asked them to intervene with authorities on his behalf. All he wanted was their presence and honesty.

Translator Notes

1. The verb padah ('to ransom, redeem') involves paying a price to free someone from bondage or danger. Job has asked for none of this — his expectations of friendship are far simpler than financial rescue.

Translator Notes

1. Job's offer is genuine and challenging: if his friends can identify a specific sin, he will accept it silently. The verb shagah ('to go astray, err') implies unintentional wandering rather than deliberate rebellion. Job is open to correction but demands specifics, not generalizations.

Translator Notes

1. The verb marats ('to be sharp, painful, forceful') acknowledges that truthful words do hurt — Job is not asking to be spared honest criticism. His complaint is that his friends' rebukes prove nothing. The verb yakach ('to argue, rebuke, prove in court') is legal language — Job wants evidence, not lectures.

Translator Notes

1. Job accuses his friends of treating his anguished words as the target rather than engaging with his actual situation. They correct his language rather than addressing his pain. The no'ash ('desperate, despairing') person's words are dismissed as ruach ('wind, breath') — insubstantial, not worth taking seriously.

Translator Notes

1. The verb naphal with 'al can mean 'to cast lots over' (as in dividing spoil) or 'to fall upon.' The verb karah ('to dig') suggests digging a pit or a trap. Job accuses his friends of treating the vulnerable (the orphan) as objects and their own friend as prey. The escalation is deliberate — if they would do this to a stranger, no wonder they treat Job this way.

Translator Notes

1. Job's plea is deeply personal: look at me. The physical act of facing another person in the ancient Near East carried the weight of honest encounter. Job insists that a face-to-face meeting would reveal his sincerity — lying while looking someone in the eye was considered especially shameful.

Translator Notes

1. Job pleads with his friends to reverse course. The avlah ('injustice, wrongdoing') is their premature verdict against him. His tsidqi ('my righteousness') is what hangs in the balance — if his friends persist in their accusation, his integrity before God and community is destroyed.

Translator Notes

1. Job closes the chapter by returning to the food metaphor from verses 6-7. His 'palate' (chek) is the organ of taste and discernment. Just as he could detect tasteless food earlier, he can detect moral wrong. He asks: do you really think I cannot tell the difference between justice and injustice, between truth and falsehood? Job claims the competence to evaluate his own moral condition.