Job 6

6:1–7:21 Job’s response attacks his counselors (ch 6) and challenges God (ch 7). He excuses his passionate words by referencing the depths of his misery (6:2-3; 7:11). Job says that Eliphaz has failed to offer comfort or sympathy as a friend, having chosen instead to haggle over stale theological precepts.

6:3-4 In the Old Testament, arrows are associated with supernatural peril, pestilence, and destructive ills (7:20; 16:12-13; Deut 32:23-24, 42; Pss 7:12-13; 38:2; 64:7; 91:5-6; Lam 2:4; 3:12-13; Ezek 5:16).

6:6 the tasteless white of an egg? Job’s riddle-like complaint probably refers both to Eliphaz’s weak counsel and the detestable situation God had allowed him to endure.

6:9 At one time, both Moses and Elijah wished that God would kill them (Num 11:15; 1 Kgs 19:4).

6:14-27 Job and his friends might have been bound by a covenant of loyalty and faithfulness (Hebrew khesed; see Gen 21:23; Exod 15:13; 1 Chr 16:34) that made them like brothers (Job 6:14-15), protectors (6:21-23), and trusted friends (6:27). If this was the case, Job was accusing his friends of violating their covenant with him.

6:19 The city of Tema in the northern Arabian desert was at the junction of roads from Damascus to Mecca and from the Persian Gulf to Aqaba (Isa 21:14; Jer 25:23). It might have been named after one of Ishmael’s descendants (Gen 25:15). It was not the same as Teman, Eliphaz’s home in Edom. • Sheba, located in southwest Arabia, was a market city for precious commodities (Ps 72:10, 15; Isa 60:6; Jer 6:20; Ezek 27:22-23; 38:13).

6:27 even send an orphan into slavery: Job, the former protector of orphans (31:17, 21), used a proverbial example of his counselors’ hard-heartedness toward the defenseless (see 17:5).

6:30 Don’t I know the difference between right and wrong? (literally Can’t my palate discern malice?): Job might have been echoing his earlier comment about a tasteless, revolting diet (6:6-7).