For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Job 6:1-13

 1 Then Job replied:

2 ‘If only my anguish could be weighed
    and all my misery be placed on the scales!
3 It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas –
    no wonder my words have been impetuous.
4 The arrows of the Almighty are in me,
    my spirit drinks in their poison;
    God’s terrors are marshalled against me.
5 Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass,
    or an ox bellow when it has fodder?
6 Is tasteless food eaten without salt,
    or is there flavour in the sap of the mallow?
7 I refuse to touch it;
    such food makes me ill.

8 ‘Oh, that I might have my request,
    that God would grant what I hope for,
9 that God would be willing to crush me,
    to let loose his hand and cut off my life!
10 Then I would still have this consolation –
    my joy in unrelenting pain –
    that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.

11 ‘What strength do I have, that I should still hope?
    What prospects, that I should be patient?
12 Do I have the strength of stone?
    Is my flesh bronze?
13 Do I have any power to help myself,
    now that success has been driven from me?

A. Find Out

1. How does Job represent his anguish? v.1-3
2. To what does he attribute it? v.4
3. To what does he compare himself? v.5
4. What does he say about tasteless food? v.6,7
5. What does he want God to do and why? v.8-10
6. What does he then say about his present and future state? v.11-13

B. Think:

1. Summarise Job’s feelings about his anguish in v.1-4
2. Summarise his desire in v.8-10
3. Summarise his hope? v.11-13

C. Comment:

Job now speaks for a second time. He feels his anguish is so great that if it was weighed it would outweigh all the sand on the seashores of the world (v.2,3). He attributes this to God’s activity (v.4). He implies is it any wonder he is crying out, for a contented animal doesn’t bray, only one in anguish (v.5). He makes comment about not eating tasteless food (v.6,7) and the implication is that such food needs some flavoring added, a possible inference that if his friends are going to speak harsh words they could at least temper it with some added grace! 

In his anguish he just wishes that the Lord would grant him his wish for his life to be ended (v.8,9) so then at least he would die without having denied the Lord in any way (v.10). Eventually he bemoans his state and his future. He doesn’t have any strength left and therefore has no hope of staying alive (v.11). He’s not made of stone or metal  and simply can’t endure (implied v.12) and he feels utterly powerless and helpless for any hope of change has been driven from him (v.13).

Again we have here further additions to the previous pictures of Job’s anguish that help us understand something of the awfulness of what he is going through. His misery is monumental and he is left feeling utterly weak and helpless in the face of what the Lord has brought on him. This is no mock testing. This is the real thing!

D. Application:

1. Extreme pain is suffering and we all encounter it in this Fallen World.
2. Understand the depths that some of our fellow humans go to.

Passage: Job 6:14-23

14 ‘Anyone who withholds kindness from a friend
    forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
15 But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams,
    as the streams that overflow
16 when darkened by thawing ice
    and swollen with melting snow,
17 but that stop flowing in the dry season,
    and in the heat vanish from their channels.
18 Caravans turn aside from their routes;
    they go off into the wasteland and perish.
19 The caravans of Tema look for water,
    the travelling merchants of Sheba look in hope.
20 They are distressed, because they had been confident;
    they arrive there, only to be disappointed.
21 Now you too have proved to be of no help;
    you see something dreadful and are afraid.
22 Have I ever said, “Give something on my behalf,
    pay a ransom for me from your wealth,
23 deliver me from the hand of the enemy,
    rescue me from the clutches of the ruthless”?

A. Find Out

1. What does Job think he should find? v.14
2. But what are his friends like in reality? v.15-17
3. To what else does he compare them? v.18-20
4. What does he conclude about his friends? v.21
5. What hasn’t he ever asked of them? v.22,23

B. Think:

1. What major lesson do we see in verse 14?
2. What point does he make in verses 15 to 17?
3. What further is added through verses 18 to 20?

C. Comment:

The previous verses of this chapter revealed Job expressing again the anguish he felt and his sense of hopelessness. He has come to a place of despair. Now in verse 14 he challenges his friends and us, the readers. What does a person in despair want and need? Loyalty, faithfulness, and devotion of his friends and the things they will look for – continuing love and acceptance. Our suffering friends probably feel guilty and a failure already so they don’t need us to drive home their guilt. The thing they need more than anything else is loving acceptance.

Job has looked for this but not found it in his three friends. They cannot be depended upon it seems, they are like streams which one moment are full and overflowing (v.15) as by melting snow (v.16), but the next, dry up as in a dry season (v.17). Lack of dependency is what comes through in those verses, but there is more. Their failure also brings disappointment. They remind Job of (Arab) caravans looking for water (v.18,19) who expected to find water, but when they arrive at the place they expected to find it, there was none (v.20). That’s what these three friends have been like (v.21). Has Job ever made demands of them (v.22,23) so they might feel bad about him, (implied)? No, he hasn’t! There’s nothing in him to dampen his expectation of them.

D. Application:

1. When our friends are suffering or in trouble, what do they find from us? Do they find us dependable and loyal, there for them?
2. Do they find us loving, caring and accepting, a source of light and life in their darkness?

Passage:  Job 6:24-30

24 ‘Teach me, and I will be quiet;
    show me where I have been wrong.
25 How painful are honest words!
    But what do your arguments prove?
26 Do you mean to correct what I say,
    and treat my desperate words as wind?
27 You would even cast lots for the fatherless
    and barter away your friend.

28 ‘But now be so kind as to look at me.
    Would I lie to your face?
29 Relent, do not be unjust;
    reconsider, for my integrity is at stake.
30 Is there any wickedness on my lips?
    Can my mouth not discern malice?

A. Find Out

1. What does Job now demand of his friends? v.24
2. What might he expect but what does he get? v.25
3. What do they seem to be doing? v.26
4. What is this like? v.27
5. What does he ask about himself? v.28,30
6. What does he ask them to do and why? v.29

B. Think:

1. How would you summarise what he is saying in v.24 to 27?
2. What does he ask them to consider about himself?
3. What does he consider is at stake which is important to him?

C. Comment:

Job has just previously expressed his disappointment in his friends and now he challenges them to assess him rightly. If he’s done wrong, then show him that clearly (v.24). He’s aware that correction can be painful and he’s ready for that (implied v.25). Why, he continues, are you bothering to try and correct the words of a despairing man, words which you want to write off as just meaningless like wind (v.26). It seems so heartless like those who would obtain orphans and sell their friend (v.27). Finally he pleads, look me in the face. I’m trying to be honest, I wouldn’t lie to you, I would tell you if I had sinned (implied v.28). Please, step back from this stand you’ve taken against me, be fair, because this is my integrity and my reputation you are talking about here (v.28). Please, listen carefully. Am I saying anything that is patently wicked? Have I not always been careful what I say; please be gentle with me! (v.29).

Thus we see in threes verses a plea for clarity and for integrity in what they say to him. He’s willing to take correction but he wants it to be carefully considered so he can see the reality of it. He wants them to genuinely assess his life, but to do it with compassion, to think about the sort of person he has been and to think about what they have heard him say in the past.

D. Application:

1. Are we compassionate in correction?
2. Are we truthful and just in correction?