Job 6:18

_THE PATHS OF THEIR WAY ARE TURNED ASIDE; THEY GO TO NOTHING, AND PERISH._ The paths of their way are turned aside. Caravans (Hebrew, travelers) turn aside from their way (Umbreit). But Maurer supports the English version, the paths of their (the travelers) 'way turn aside' - i:e., travelers turn aside from their way х_ 'AARªCHOWT_ (H734) _ DARKAAM_ (H1870)] by circuitous routes to obtain water. They had seen the brook in spring full of water; and now in the summer heat, on their weary journey, they turn off their road by a devious route to reach the living waters, which they remembered with such pleasure. But when 'they go up' it is 'into a desert' (Noyes and Umbreit). Not as the English version, "They go to nothing," which would be a tame repetition of the drying up of the waters in Job 6

14-30 In his prosperity Job formed great expectations from his friends, but now was disappointed. This he compares to the failing of brooks in summer. Those who rest their expectations on the creature, will find it fail when it should help them; whereas those who make God their confidence, have help in the time of need, Hebrews 4:16. Those who make gold their hope, sooner or later will be ashamed of it, and of their confidence in it. It is our wisdom to cease from man. Let us put all our confidence in the Rock of ages, not in broken reeds; in the Fountain of life, not in broken cisterns. The application is very close; "for now ye are nothing." It were well for us, if we had always such convictions of the vanity of the creature, as we have had, or shall have, on a sick-bed, a death-bed, or in trouble of conscience. Job upbraids his friends with their hard usage. Though in want, he desire...

Verse Job 6:18. _THE PATHS OF THEIR WAY_] They sometimes forsake their _ancient channels_, which is a frequent case with the river _Ganges_; and growing smaller and smaller from being divided into numerous streams, _they go to nothing and perish _- are at last utterly lost in the sands....

THE PATHS OF THEIR WAY ARE TURNED ASIDE - Noyes renders this, “The caravans turn aside to them on their way.” Good, “The outlets of their channel wind about.” Rosenmuller, “The bands of travelers direct their journey to them.” Jerome, “Involved are the paths of their steps.” According to the interpretation of Rosenmuller, Noyes, Umbreit, and others, it means that the caravans on their journey turn aside from their regular way in order to find water there; and that in doing it they go up into a desert and perish. According to the other interpretation, it means that the channels of the stream wind along until they diminish and come to nothing. This latter I take to be the true sense of the passage, as it is undoubtedly the most poetical. It is a representation of the stream winding along in its channels, or making new channels as it flows from the mountain, until it diminishes by evaporati...

EXPOSITION Job 6:1. and 7. contain Job's reply to Eliphaz. In Job 6:1. he confines himself to three points: (1) a justification of his "grief"—_i.e._ of his vexation and impatience (Job 6:1); (2) a declaration that the destruction with which he has been threatened (Job 4:9, Job 4:21; Job 5:2), is exactly the thing which he most longs for (Job 6:8); and (3) a r

THE PATHS OF THEIR WAY ARE TURNED ASIDE,.... That is, the waters, when melted by the heat of the sun, and the warmth of the weather, run, some one way, and some another in little streams and windings, till they are quite lost and the tracks of them are no more to be seen; denoting that all appearance of friendship was quite gone, and no traces of it to be found: THEY GO TO NOTHING, AND PERISH: some of them are lost in little meanders and windings about, and others are exhaled by the heat of the sun, and go into "Tohu", as the word is, into empty air; so vain and empty, and perishing, were all the comforts he hoped for from his friends; though some understand this of the paths of travellers in the deserts being covered in the sand, and not to be seen and found; of which see Pliny z. z Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 29....

CHAPTER S 6-7 JOB'S ANSWER _ 1. His Despair justified by the greatness of his suffering (Job 6:1)_ 2. He requests to be cut off (Job 6:8) 3. He reproacheth his friends (Job 6:14) 4. The misery of life (Job 7:1) 5. Two questions: Why does God deal with me thus? Why does He not pardon? (Job 7:8) Job 6:1. He meets first of all the reproach and accusation of Eliphaz (Job 4:1). Because his sufferings are so g

JOB'S SORROWFUL DISAPPOINTMENT IN HIS FRIENDS. He begins by citing a proverb. The despairing man who is slipping from religion, looks for help and sympathy from his friends. The friends, however, have proved like a brook that disappoints the thirsty caravan (Job 6:15). When the thaw comes, the brooks are swollen black with broken ice and melting snow (Job 6:16). But in summer they dry up (Job 6:17), and the caravan, finding no water where they expected, as a last desperate resource turn aside from the path into the desert to look for water, and perish miserably (Job 6:18). Tema (Isaiah 21:1

TO NOTHINGS INTO. WASTE. Hebrew. _tohu,_ as in Genesis 1:2....

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, "despa...