Job 6:3

_FOR NOW IT WOULD BE HEAVIER THAN THE SAND OF THE SEA: THEREFORE MY WORDS ARE SWALLOWED UP._ The sand. "The sand is weighty" (Proverbs 27:3). ARE SWALLOWED UP - See margin. So Psalms 77:4 - "I am so troubled that I cannot speak." But Job plainly is apologizing, not for not having had words enough, but for having spoken too much and too boldly; and the Hebrew is, to speak rashly (Umbreit, Gesenius, Rosenmuller). Translate, 'Therefore were my words so rash.' If my complaint has been somewhat violent, it is not without much reason....

1-7 Job still justifies himself in his complaints. In addition to outward troubles, the inward sense of God's wrath took away all his courage and resolution. The feeling sense of the wrath of God is harder to bear than any outward afflictions. What then did the Saviour endure in the garden and on the cross, when he bare our sins, and his soul was made a sacrifice to Divine justice for us! Whatever burden of affliction, in body or estate, God is pleased to lay upon us, we may well submit to it as long as he continues to us the use of our reason, and the peace of our conscience; but if either of these is disturbed, our case is very pitiable. Job reflects upon his friends for their censures. He complains he had nothing offered for his relief, but what was in itself tasteless, loathsome, and burdensome....

Verse Job 6:3. _HEAVIER THAN THE SAND OF THE SEA_] This includes _two_ _ideas_: their _number_ was too great to be counted; their _weight_ was too great to be estimated....

HEAVIER THAN THE SAND OF THE SEA - That is, they would be found to be insupportable. Who could bear up the sands of the sea? So Job says of his sorrows. A comparison somewhat similar is found in Proverbs 27:3. Heavy is a stone, and weighty the sand of the Sea, But a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both. MY WORDS ARE SWALLOWED UP - Margin, “I want words to express my grief.” This expresses the true sense - but not with the same poetic beauty. We express the same idea when we say that we are choked with grief; we are so overwhelmed with sorrow that we cannot speak. Any very deep emotion prevents the power of utterance. So in P

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

FOR NOW IT WOULD BE HEAVIER THAN THE SAND OF THE SEA,.... Or "seas" z; all sand is heavy in its own nature, Proverbs 27:3; especially the sand of the sea, that which is immediately taken out of it; for that on the shore is lighter, being dried by the winds and heat of the sun, but the other is heavier, through the additional weight of water; and much more especially how heavy must all the sand of the sea be, and of all the seas that are in the world: yet Job suggests by this hyperbolical expression, exaggerating his case, that his affliction was heavier than it all, a most intolerable and insupportable burden; the afflictions of God's people are but light when compared with what their sins deserve, with the torments of the damned in hell, with the sufferings of Christ in their room and stead, and with everlasting, happiness, the eternal weight of glory,...

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 in his reply deals first of all with the charge of impatience. He catches up the word used by Eliphaz (Job 5:2), and declares that his impatience does but balance his calamity (Job 6:1 f.). The dreadfulness of the latter is that it is from God Himself (Job 6:4). The image is that of poisoned arrows, whose points have penetrated (within me). Job's spirit drinks their poison, so that he cannot help roaring. No creature complains without reason, no more does he (Job 6:5). What is loathsome and unbearable is thrust upon him (Job 6:6 f.) So keenly does he feel the truth of what he is saying that he forgets his defence, a

Job 6:1-13. Job defends the violence of his complaints and his despair Eliphaz had made no reference directly to sin on Job's part; but he drew dark pictures of the evilness of human nature before the eye of his friend, and for his advantage. Job shews a dislike to touch this point. His dislike is that of a man conscious of his innocence, and who can hardly believe that his friends seriously mean what their indirect allusions seem to imply. Hence he attaches his reply to what Eliphaz had openly expressed, namely, his wonder at the despair of Job and his blameable impatience. The idea of his having sinned he touches only in passing and with strong repudiation of it (ch. Job 6:28-30). Eliphaz had used the word "confounded" of Job's hopeless despair (ch....

C. SEARCH FOR COMFORT AND JOB'S CONFRONTATION WITH GOD (Job 6:1, Job 7:21) 1. There is adequate reason for his complaint. (Job 6:1-7) TEXT 6:1-7 6 THEN JOB ANSWERED AND SAID, 2 Oh that my vexation were but weighed, And all my calamity laid in the balances! 3 For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas: Therefore have my words been rash. 4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, The poison whereof my spirit drinketh up: The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. 5 Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? Or loweth the ox over his fodder? 6 Can that which hath no savor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?