Job 6:14-30

Job's sorrowful disappointment at the position taken up towards him by his three friends

Job had freely expressed his misery in ch. 3, believing that the sympathies of his friends were entirely with him. He is

a brother noble,

Whose nature is so far from doing harms

That he suspects none.

Lear, i. 2.

And more sorrowful to him than any cold, critical words which they have uttered is the feeling that his friends have taken up such a position against him. This was what he had not looked for. And his disappointment is like that of the thirsty caravan that finds the long-looked-for waters dried up in the heat. Every emotion seems now to find a place in Job's mind in succession. First, his disappointment, expressed in this beautiful figure, is mixed with the feeling how unworthy his friends" conduct was. They had not acted to him as men do to one who is, as he describes himself, "despairing" and "losing hold of the fear of the Almighty." Kindness is due to such a one, but they had turned against him from sheer feebleness of spirit, because they saw that his calamity was from God, Job 6:14.

Second, this mixed sadness and contempt passes into sarcasm when he tells them that he could have understood their fear if he had asked anything from them even one's friends must not be put under that strain but he sought only sympathy, Job 6:22.

Third, this sarcasm then gives place to a direct appeal of great severity, in which he demands that they should shew him the sins at which they had indirectly hinted, and wonders at their superficial captiousness in fastening on the mere excited words of a man in despair; adding in terms of bitter invective that their disposition was so hard that they would cast lots for the orphan and make market of their own friend, Job 6:24.

Finally, he challenges them to seek the explanation of his afflictions on other principles than the supposition of his guiltiness, asking them whether, in asserting his innocence, he would lie in their faces, and if he was not able to say whether his calamities were deserved or not? Job 6:28.