Job began not with a direct reply to Eliphaz but with another complaint about his condition. Then he responded to Eliphaz's speech but addressed all three of his friends. The "you"and "yours"in 6:24-30 are plural in the Hebrew text.
Job said he complained because of his great irritation. His calamities were as heavy as wet sand (vv. 2-3). The Hebrew word translated "iniquity"in verse 2 occurs only here in the Old Testament. We should probably translate it "calamity"or "misfortune."Job implied that his words of complaint were nothing in comparison to his suffering. His situation was harder for him to bear because he believed his misfortune came from God.
"The God he had known and the God he now experiences seemed irreconcilable."40
Job refused to accept his trials without something to make them bearable, namely, complaining. Similarly a person refuses tasteless food without salt (vv. 6-7).
Job longed for death. He wished God would release him from his enslavement to life (cf. Ps. 105:20) and snip off his life as a weaver cuts thread (v. 9). He affirmed his faithfulness to God's words (v. 10) but acknowledged that he had no hope and no help to live. Verse 13 should read as an affirmation rather than as a question: "Indeed my help . . . and deliverance is driven from me."
"The fact that Job speaks about God in the third person should not be permitted to give the wrong impression. He is actually praying, not talking to Eliphaz. Such a convention is common in the respectful address to a superior."41
"If, up to this point, Job has been praying, or at least soliloquizing, now he makes a more direct attack on the friends (the you' in verse 21 is plural)."42
Job's friends had not been loyal to him when they judged him as they did. "Kindness"in verse 14 is literally "loyalty."Consequently Job was close to forsaking his fear of God. Job's friends should have encouraged and supported him. Instead they proved as disappointing as a wadi. A wadi is a stream bed that is full of water in the rainy season, but when the heat of summer comes it dries up completely. Job replied that his friends were no help in his distress.
Evidently Job's friends were afraid of him (v. 21) in the sense that they feared that if they comforted him God would view them as approving of his sin and would punish them as well.43
"Verse 21 is the climax of Job's reaction to his friends' counsel [thus far]. They offered no help."44
"There is no act of pastoral care more unnerving than trying to say the right thing to someone hysterical with grief. It is early in the day for Job to lose patience with them. But the point is not whether Job is unfair: this is how he feels. The truth is already in sight that only God can speak the right word. And Job's wits are sharp enough to forecast where Eliphaz's trend of thought will end--in open accusation of sin. Hence he gets in first with a pre-emptive strike, anticipating in the following denials his great speech of exculpation in chapter 31."45
Next Job invited his friends to identify the sin for which they believed God was punishing him.46So far Eliphaz had only alluded to it. Job welcomed specific honest criticism, not arguments based on insinuations (v. 25). In verse 30 Job seems to be claiming the ability to know whether his afflictions were the result of sin or not, as a person can distinguish different tastes in his or her mouth.
"The rest of Job's speech is more like a soliloquy which turns into a remonstration against God Himself. His theme is once more the hard servicethat men have upon earth."47
In this complaint (cf. ch. 3; 6:8-13) Job compared himself to a slave or hired servant and concluded that he was in a worse condition. In verse 6 one Hebrew word occurs twice and reads first "shuttle"and then "hope."Job had run out of hope as a weaver's shuttle runs out of thread.
Throughout his sufferings Job did not turn away from God. Often people undergoing severe affliction do forsake Him. However, Job kept God in view and kept talking to God even though he did not know what to ask, which was a major part of his torment. I believe this accounts for his ability to maintain his sanity and to come through his adversity finally. It is when people abandon God in their suffering that they get into serious trouble spiritually.
Job believed he would die soon. Yet he did not ask to die here as he had earlier (3:20-22). This slight upturn in his feelings may be the result of his praying to God.48Sheol (v. 9) refers to the grave in the Old Testament. The ancients thought it was the place where the spirits of people went when they died. Their condition there was a mystery in the patriarchal period.49
Since his friends could not identify his sin Job asked God why he was suffering. In this prayer Job complained that God would not leave him alone so he could die. Job felt God was hounding him for no apparent reason. God would not let Job alone long enough for him even to swallow his saliva (v. 19), a proverbial expression meaning "for a moment."He asked God to point out his sin if he had sinned (v. 20; cf. 6:24). Job believed he had done nothing worthy of such suffering (v. 21).
"I would suggest that the imagery of Job 7:12 . . . has been chosen by the poet to articulate precisely the main thrust of Job's protest against God (i.e., the deity's relentless surveillance), and in doing so the poet has created a text with clear mythologized content but without a strict parallel . . . he has molded general mythological ideas to suit his own purpose."50
Some people are afraid to pray frankly and honestly to God, but Job had nothing to hide. He was open to God's correction even though he believed God was dealing with him unjustly. In this his prayer of complaint is a model for us. God understood Job's chafed feelings and did not "kick him when he was down"for his bitter words.
I think Job reacted with hostility toward Eliphaz because of the way his friend tried to comfort him. Eliphaz assumed a position of having superior knowledge based on his personal experience. He forced Job into the mold of being a great sinner to keep his theory of retribution intact. Job did not appreciate being put down or made to look like a greater sinner than he was. He had formerly held Eliphaz's theory, but now he believed that it was not always true. Job's was a common reaction to counsel that comes from someone who claims greater experience, either direct or vicarious, even experience derived from Scripture. This approach often produces an overreaction. Job refused to admit he was a sinner at all. It also offends people when they have considerable experience in life themselves. Eliphaz had no reason to be surprised when the person he was trying to help rebuked him.
