BOOK 18 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Job 6

Job book home•Chapter 6 of 42•30 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Job 6 Overview

Job answers Eliphaz by insisting that his grief is heavier than his words can express. He longs for death but still refuses to deny the words of the Holy One. He compares his friends to unreliable streams that disappear when needed and asks them to identify the wrong in his speech rather than accuse him vaguely.

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Before you read Job 6

Coming from

Eliphaz ended by urging Job to accept suffering as divine correction and promising restoration.

In this chapter

Job explains the weight of his anguish and challenges his friends to show actual wrongdoing instead of assuming it.

Leads into

Chapter 7 continues Job’s response as he turns from the friends to God and asks why his miserable life is prolonged.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Job does not claim every word he has spoken is measured perfectly; he argues that desperate speech should be heard in light of desperate suffering. His demand is evidential: if he has erred, the friends should teach him plainly rather than infer guilt from circumstances.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Deep grief can make speech intense without proving the speaker has abandoned God.

Truth 2

A faithful friend should bring truthful help, not disappear like a seasonal stream when suffering becomes uncomfortable.

Truth 3

Accusations should be tied to actual wrongdoing rather than inferred merely from a person’s hardship.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Proverbs 17:17 presents a friend as one who loves at all times.

Connection 2

Romans 12:15 calls believers to weep with those who weep.

Connection 3

Job 19:21 will again plead for pity from the friends who have turned his suffering into a case against him.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Job’s wish for death should not be interpreted as permission for self-harm; he places the matter before God.

Keep this clear 2

His claim that he has not concealed the words of the Holy One is not a claim of absolute sinlessness.

Keep this clear 3

Do not assume emotional intensity equals doctrinal apostasy.

Read Job 6 watching for…

The weight imagery Job uses for his grief.

His continued reference to the Holy One.

The unreliable-stream comparison for his friends.

His request that they teach him if he is wrong.

The difference between specific correction and vague suspicion.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-7Job says his grief is heavier than the sand and explains the bitterness of his suffering 8-13Job longs for death and says he has no strength left to hope 14-23Job says an afflicted man needs pity, but his friends have been unreliable 24-30Job asks his friends to show him where he has erred and to judge his words rightly

But Job answered and said,

Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together!

For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up.

For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.

Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder?

Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat.

Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I long for!

Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!

Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.

What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?

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

Is not my help in me? and is wisdom driven quite from me?

To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.

My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;

Which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid:

What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.

The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish.

The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them.

They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed.

For now ye are nothing; ye see my casting down, and are afraid.

Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance?

Or, Deliver me from the enemy's hand? or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty?

Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred.

How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?

Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?

Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye dig a pit for your friend.

Now therefore be content, look upon me; for it is evident unto you if I lie.

Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; yea, return again, my righteousness is in it.

Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?

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Job 6:8

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