Job 6 explained: Job Answers His Friend's Advice

Grief too heavy to weigh (vv. 1-7)

Job says his suffering outweighs all the sand of the sea, so his wild words make sense, just as an animal only cries out when it has nothing to eat. The tasteless food he cannot stomach may stand for his suffering or for his friends' bland advice, and readers are unsure which.

A wish to die (vv. 8-13)

Job asks God to crush him and end his life, though he never speaks of ending it himself. His one comfort is that he has not turned against God's words, and he insists he is only flesh, not stone or bronze, with no strength left to wait for recovery.

Friends like dried-up streams (vv. 14-21)

A true friend shows kindness to someone in despair, but Job's friends are like desert streams that roar in the rainy season and vanish in summer heat. Trading caravans from Tema and Sheba, regions of Arabia, counted on that water and found nothing; verse 14 is hard to translate, so its exact sense is debated.

I asked you for nothing (vv. 22-23)

Job points out he never asked them to give him anything, to pay a ransom for him out of their wealth, or to rescue him from enemies. All he wanted was their loyalty and care.

Show me where I went wrong (vv. 24-30)

Job says he will go quiet if they can point to something he actually did wrong, but their criticism proves nothing and treats a desperate man's words as empty wind. He calls them heartless enough to gamble over orphans, and begs them to look him in the face and see he is telling the truth.

Key verse: Job 6:14

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether Job's bitter complaints and wish to die here are a fault to be corrected or an honest, faithful lament that God accepts, especially since God later says Job spoke rightly about him.

Something to think about

When you have been in real pain, what did the people around you do that helped, and what made it worse?