Job 6 Study Notes
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6:1-3 The sand of the seas is often used as a metaphor for vastness (29:18; cp. Jos 11:4; 1Kg 4:20) or something beyond measure (Gn 22:17; Jdg 7:12; 1Kg 4:29; Hs 1:10).
6:4 God is often portrayed as the divine warrior whose arrows shatter the enemy (Dt 32:42; Ps 7:12-13; 18:14; Hab 3:11). God’s mighty strength brings terror to the objects of his wrath (Ex 23:27; Is 2:10,19; Jr 49:5). Job felt he was the object of God’s personal attack.
6:5 Animals, whether wild or compliant, do not complain when they are well tended. Job would not complain if he received just treatment in accordance with his righteousness.
6:6-7 The rhetorical question in v. 6 implied a negative answer. Rather than tasteful nourishment to Job’s grieving soul, Eliphaz’s words were like contaminated food.
6:8-10 Contrary to Eliphaz’s advice, Job put his hope not in his piety (4:6-7) or God’s disciplinary action (5:17), but in death (3:11-15; 10:21-22), God’s final blow. God’s granting of Job’s wish to be crushed and cut . . . off would relieve his suffering and affirm his innocence.
koach
| Hebrew pronunciation | [KO ahkh] |
| CSB translation | strength, might, wealth |
| Uses in Job | 21 |
| Uses in the OT | 126 |
| Focus passage | Job 6:11-12,22 |
Koach is strength found in arms (Is 44:12), hands (Jb 30:2), and physical exertion (Jb 36:19). Oxen and young men have it (Pr 14:4; 20:29), as did Samson (Jdg 16:9). Animals’ loins contain it (Jb 40:16); animals have savage fury (Dn 8:6). Strength allows childbirth (Is 37:3), taking action (Pr 24:10), and saving warriors (Am 2:14). Food provides it (1Sm 28:22). Strength dries up (Ps 22:15), fails, leaves (Ps 38:10), and is broken (Lm 1:14). It diminishes with age (Ps 71:9). People without it are powerless (Jb 26:2) or exhausted (Jr 48:45). Koach is might (Jdg 16:30), stamina (Ezr 10:13), or force. Peoples and armies have it. Divine power created life (Jr 10:12). Political power exists (Dn 8:24), and power to prophesy (Mc 3:8), understand (Jb 36:5), or hope (Jb 6:11). Voices are raised loudly (Is 40:9). Koach signifies wealth (Jb 6:22), resources (Pr 5:10), or produce (Jb 31:39).
6:11-13 Job expresses here his sense of helplessness and hopelessness.
6:14 Job complained about his treatment by his friends. As their suffering friend, he should receive loyalty (or lovingkindness) from them (Pr 14:21).
6:15 Wadi is an Arabian term for an intermittent desert stream—called an arroyo, gulch, gully, or wash in the American Southwest.
6:16-18 Like a seasonal stream, Job’s “brothers” (v. 15) were not dependable. When he really needed them, they were no help.
6:19 The oasis of Tema served as a trade center in northwestern Arabia.
6:20 Ashamed describes one who puts their trust in something untrustworthy.
6:21 Seeing Job’s dreadful condition, his friends were afraid to get close to him lest they also incur God’s judgment.
6:22-23 Job had never asked his friends for special favors. Surely they could at least be loyal.
6:24-26 The Hebrew word behind what I did wrong (shagah) speaks of unintentional sin. If his friends thought Job had erred, they should tell him honestly but gently, not in a painful manner. Job’s friends had not yet disproven his claim to innocence; they had only dismissed it.
6:27 Job compared his friends to merciless creditors who would take an orphan or sell a friend into slavery in payment for a debt (Ex 22:22; 2Kg 4:1; Am 2:6; 8:6).
6:28-29 The friends were not looking at him, repulsed either by his appearance or his words. Reconsider is literally “repent.”
6:30 Job found Eliphaz’s words tasteless (vv. 5-7), but his own words were not displeasing.