Context No. 2822 of 4322 · Job

Job 6:1-16: in context

1Then Job answered, 2“Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances! 3For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas, therefore my words have been rash. 4For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me. 5Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass? Or does the ox low over his fodder? 6Can that which has no flavor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg? 7My soul refuses to touch them. They are as loathsome food to me. 8“Oh that I might have my request, that God would grant the thing that I long for, 9even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off! 10Let it still be my consolation, yes, let me exult in pain that doesn’t spare, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One. 11What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient? 12Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of bronze? 13Isn’t it that I have no help in me, that wisdom is driven away from me? 14“To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty. 15My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away; 16which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself.

Job answers his friends out of raw pain. Oh, that my anguish could be weighed, he says; it would be heavier than the sand of the sea. The arrows of the Almighty are in me, and my spirit drinks their poison. He goes so far as to wish that God would simply crush him and be done, and finds his only comfort in never having denied the words of the Holy One.

This is honest lament, and it asks to be received rather than corrected. Job does not pretend to be fine; he weighs his grief and finds it outweighs the sand. Then he turns on his friends with a devastating and fair complaint. A man ready to faint should have kindness from his friends, but you, he says, are like a desert brook that runs full in the cold and then dries up right when the thirsty traveler arrives. They came promising comfort and delivered none, failing him at the exact moment his need was real.

When someone comes to me in the depth of grief, am I a steady stream, or a brook that dries up right when they need me?

Sources

Job 6:14: "To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend."
Proverbs 17:17: "A friend loves at all times; and a brother is born for adversity."
Galatians 6:2: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."