Job 6:20

_THEY WERE CONFOUNDED BECAUSE THEY HAD HOPED; THEY CAME THITHER, AND WERE ASHAMED._ They had hoped - literally, each had hoped-namely, that their companions would find water. The greater had been their hopes the more bitter now their disappointment; they came there to the place and were ashamed;-literally, their countenances burn-an oriental phrase for the shame and consternation of deceived expectation. So ashamed as to disappointment - "Hope maketh not ashamed" (Romans 5:5). As the dried up brook is to the caravan, so are ye to me-namely, a nothing; ye might as well not be in existence (Umbreit): just as the brook in summer is a nonentity to the thirsty travelers. NOW - namely, when I have you present with me-in contrast to past time when they were away, and when Job had hoped for comfort from their coming to him. The margin, like to them or it-namely, the waters

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...

THEY WERE CONFOUNDED BECAUSE THEY HAD HOPED - The caravans of Tema and Sheba. The word “confounded” here means ashamed. It represents the state of feeling which one has who has met with disappointment. He is perplexed, distressed, and ashamed that he had entertained so confident hope; see the notes at Isaiah 30:5. They were downcast and sad that the waters had failed, and they looked on one another with confusion and dismay. There are few images more poetic than this, and nothing that would more strikingly exhibit the disappointment of Job, that he had looked for consolation from his friends, and had not found it. He was down-cast, distressed, and disheartened, like the travelers of Tema and of Sheba, because they had nothing to offer to console him; because he had waited for them to sustain him in his afflictions, and had been wholly disappointed....

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

AND THEY WERE CONFOUNDED BECAUSE THEY HAD HOPED,.... When they came to the places where they hoped to find water, finding none were ashamed of their vain hope, and reflected upon themselves for being so foolish as to raise their expectations upon such a groundless surmise: THEY CAME THITHER, AND WERE ASHAMED; which is the same thing expressed in different words; and aptly enough describes Job's disappointment in not meeting with that relief and comfort he expected from his friends, to whom he makes application of all this in the following words....

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

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...

MY BRETHREN HAVE DEALT DECEITFULLY— Bishop Lowth observes, that though the metaphor from overflowing waters is very frequent in other sacred writers, yet the author of the book of Job never touches upon it but once or twice throughout the whole poem, and that very slightly, though the subject afforded him frequent opportunities to do so. Indeed, says he, a different face of nature presented itself to him, whoever he was, if, according to the opinion of several learned men, the book was written in some part of Arabia; an opinion rendered more probable by that remarkable comparison in which Job likens his three friends to a _deceitful torrent,_ which is manifestly taken from the dry and sandy places of Arabia, and adorned with many images peculiar to that country....

3. Bitter disappointment from his friends, who are unreasonably hard (Job 6:14-23) TEXT 6:14-23 14 TO HIM THAT IS READY TO FAINT KINDNESS _should be showed_ FROM HIS FRIEND; Even to him that forsaketh the fear of the Almighty. 15 My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, As the channel of brooks that pass away; 16 Which are black by reason of the ice, _And_ WHEREIN THE SNOW HIDETH ITSELF: 17 What time they wax warm, they vanish; When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place. 18 The caravans _that travel_ BY THE WAY OF THEM TURN ASIDE; They go up into the waste, and perish. 19 The caravans of Tema looked, The companies of Sheba waited for them. 20 They were put to shame because they had hoped; They came thither, and were confounded. 21 For now ye are