Wisdom · Chapter 6 of 42
Job 6
Job answers, insisting his grief outweighs the sand of the sea and that God's arrows have pierced him. He wishes God would simply crush him and end it. He accuses his friends of failing him like a dried-up brook that disappoints thirsty travelers, offering fear instead of pity. He begs them to look honestly at him and teach him where he has actually erred.
What happens in Job 6
Job responds to Eliphaz by defending the weight of his complaint: if his grief and calamity could be weighed, they would outweigh the sand of the sea, which is why his words come out wild. He feels the arrows of the Almighty within him, their poison drinking up his spirit. Job's longing is startling: he wishes God would grant his request and crush him, cutting him off, and he would find comfort in knowing he had not denied the words of the Holy One.
Then he turns on his friends. They should have shown pity, but they have proved as treacherous as a seasonal brook that runs with ice-melt and then vanishes in the heat, betraying thirsty caravans. He never asked them for money or rescue, only understanding. He challenges them to show him his actual sin, insisting there is no injustice on his tongue that his own taste cannot discern.
Job 6 in context
This is Job's first reply within the poetic dialogue, and it answers Eliphaz on two fronts. To the charge that his words are rash, Job pleads the sheer magnitude of his suffering. To the friends who came to comfort, he exposes their failure with a vivid desert image.
The brook that dries up when travelers most need it captures how hollow their counsel feels. Job is not yet cursing God, but he is honest that God's hand, not just Satan's, seems to be against him.
Main themes of Job 6
Job 6 (KJV)
1But Job answered and said, 2Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! 3For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up. 4For 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. 5Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder? 6Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg? 7The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat. 8Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I long for! 9Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off! 10Then 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. 11What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life? 12Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass? 13Is not my help in me? and is wisdom driven quite from me? 14To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty. 15My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away; 16Which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid: 17What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place. 18The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish. 19The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them. 20They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed. 21For now ye are nothing; ye see my casting down, and are afraid. 22Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance? 23Or, Deliver me from the enemy’s hand? or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty? 24Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred. 25How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove? 26Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind? 27Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye dig a pit for your friend. 28Now therefore be content, look upon me; for it is evident unto you if I lie. 29Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; yea, return again, my righteousness is in it. 30Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?
Verses to carry from Job 6
“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.”Job 6:4
“To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.”Job 6:14
“My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;”Job 6:15
Thematic connection
How Job 6 points to Jesus
Job's cry that pity should be shown to the afflicted, even when a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty, names a hunger the Gospel satisfies. Job was betrayed by comforters who dried up like a desert brook when he most needed them. Christ is the friend who does not fail, the living water that never runs dry, who welcomes the weary and heavy laden rather than fleeing them. Where Job's companions offered fear and formulas, Jesus wept at tombs and touched the untouchable.
Job felt the arrows of the Almighty in his flesh; on the cross the Son absorbed the true weight of divine judgment so that we would not. This is a thematic bond: Job voices the ache for a faithful comforter, and Jesus is that comforter in the flesh, present precisely where human friends withdraw.
Questions about Job 6
Why does Job wish God would kill him?
Job's death wish is not suicidal scheming but a plea for release from unbearable pain, and it carries a strange dignity: he would die comforted, knowing he had not denied God's words. He asks God, not his own hand, to end it. The wish reveals how deep suffering can make death look merciful, while Job still refers even his death to God's decision rather than seizing it himself.
What is the point of Job's image of a dry brook?
It is a portrait of failed friendship. Desert caravans would count on seasonal streams, only to arrive and find them evaporated in the heat. So Job's friends surged with confident words but offered nothing when his real thirst came. The image indicts comfort that is generous in theory and absent in crisis, and it still tests every friendship formed in easy times.
Reflection
When you sit with someone in agony, do not become a dry brook. Job's friends failed not by lacking words but by offering fear instead of pity. Ask whether your presence quenches thirst or vanishes in the heat. And when your own comforters fail you, remember there is a Friend whose living water never runs dry.
A prayer from Job 6
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