Job 6:19

_THE TROOPS OF TEMA LOOKED, THE COMPANIES OF SHEBA WAITED FOR THEM._ The troops - i:e., caravans. Tema, north of Arabia Deserta, near the Syrian desert, called from Tema son of Ishmael (Genesis 25:15; Isaiah 21:14; Jeremiah 25:23). Still so called by the Arabs. Job 6:19 give another picture of the mortification of disappointed hopes-namely, those of the caravans on the direct road, anxiously awaiting the return of their companions from the distant valley. The mention of the locality whence the caravans came gives living reality to the picture. Sheba refers here not to the marauders in North Arabia Deserta ...

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 6:19. _THE TROOPS OF TEMA LOOKED_] The _caravans_ coming from _Tema_ are represented as arriving at those places where it was well known torrents did descend from the mountains, and they were full of expectation that here they could not only slake their thirst, but fill their _girbas_ or _water-skins_; but when they arrive, they find the waters totally dissipated and lost. In vain did the caravans of Sheba _wait for them_; they did not reappear: and they were _confounded, because they had hoped_ to find here refreshment and rest....

THE TROOPS OF TEMA LOOKED - That is, looked for the streams of water. On the situation of Tema, see Notes, Job 2:11. This was the country of Eliphaz, and the image would be well understood by him. The figure is one of exquisite beauty. It means that the caravans from Tema, in journeying through the desert, looked for those streams. They came with an expectation of finding the means of allaying their thirst. When they came there they were disappointed, for the waters had disappeared. Reiske, however, renders this, “Their tracks (the branchings of the flood) tend toward Tema;” - a translation which the Hebrew will bear, but the usual version is more correct, and is more elegant. THE COMPANIES OF SHEBA WAITED FOR THEM - The “Sheba” here referred to was probably in the southern part of Arabia; see the notes at...

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 TROOPS OF TEMA LOOKED,.... A city in Arabia, so called from Tema a son of Ishmael, Genesis 25:15; these troops or companies were travelling ones, either that travelled to Tema, or that went from thence to other places for merchandise, see Isaiah 21:13; these, as they passed along in their caravans, as the Turks their successors now do, looked at those places where in the wintertime they observed large waters frozen over, and covered with snow, and expected to have been supplied from thence in the summer season, for the extinguishing of their thirst: THE COMPANIES OF SHEBA WAITED FOR THEM: another people in Arabia, which went in companies through the deserts, where being in great want of water for their refreshment, waited patiently till they came to those places, where they hoped to

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

TROOPS. caravans. COMPANIES. travellers....

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...