Job 6:24-30

4. Their words are academic. Where is his sin? (Job 6:24-30)

TEXT 6:24-30

24 Teach me, and I will hold my peace;

And cause me to understand wherein I have erred.

25 How forcible are words of uprightness!

But your reproof, what doth it reprove?

26 Do ye think to reprove words,

Seeing that the speeches of one that is desperate are as wind?

27 Yea, ye would cast lots upon the fatherless,

And make merchandise of your friend.

28 Now therefore be pleased to look upon me;

For surely I shall not lie to your face.

29 Return, I pray you, let there be no injustice;

Yea, return again, my cause is righteous.

30 Is there injustice on my tongue?

Cannot my taste discern mischievous things?

COMMENT 6:24-30

Job 6:24If his friends can help him, he will listen in silence for their sympathetic words. He only asks for proof, not mere assertions, concerning his guilt. For discussions of inadvertent and presumptuous sins, see Leviticus 4; Numbers 15:22-29; Psalms 19:13.

Job 6:25The A. V. translates nimras as how forcible. It is used here and occurs again only in Job 16:3.[91] Job asks once more for what specific sin do you accuse me? Your arrogant generalities are meaningless, and only provoke me to more pain.

[91] G. R. Driver, Journal of Theological Studies, XXIX, 1927-a, 394ff, argues for be bitter.

Job 6:26Are Job's words but wind? His friends have only been concerned to rebuke Job for his expression of his grief, instead of comforting him by identifying the cause of his words. You think that your words are correct and hold the words of him who is in anguish to be vanity. One that is desperate[92] is one that is as hopeless (Hebrew a despairing manIsaiah 57:10; Jeremiah 2:25; and Jeremiah 18:12) as wind, meaning that they will soon be blown away; then we can forget them.

[92] Reichert, Job, Soncino, p. 28.

Job 6:27Eliphaz's complacent lecturing is inhumane. As a healer, he is more interested in the disease than the patient. Though the general sense is evident, the phrase cast lots is a problem, as the Hebrew contains no word lots, but see Job 6:14-23. They bargain overmake merchandise oftheir friends. Make merchandise, barter, is used in 40:30 where the same verb is used of fish dealers (wholesalers) haggling over Leviathan. The same verb is used in Hosea 3:2 concerning Hosea's purchase of a prostitute on the slave marketDeuteronomy 2:6. Job is suffering, while they are haggling with him as an object in a consumer trainee program.

Job 6:28The verse is in the form of an oathI swear I will not lie. But his friends have turned from him, unable to bear either his physical appearance or his violent words.

Job 6:29Return (Heb. subureturn you) does not mean that his friends are departing from him, but rather that he is asking them to change their attitude toward him. The A. V. translation my cause is right is possible but unclear. Dhorme reveals the meaning in his translationmy righteousness is still in tact.[93] Job still maintains his innocence, even in his furnace of affliction.

[93] Dhorme, Job, p. 94.

Job 6:30Job says if there was poison on my tongue, would I not know it? Cannot my palate (Hebrew) discern mischievous things, i.e., am I not able to discern the flavor of my own suffering? Neither his palate nor his moral integrity have lost their powers of discernment.