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Job 6

Job defends his desperate speech and challenges friends whose correction has come without the kindness his suffering calls for.

Job answers his friends after Eliphaz’s speech, asking them to weigh his anguish before judging his words. He describes his suffering as arrows from the Almighty and asks God to end his life, saying his strength is spent. He then turns on his friends: their kindness has failed like streams that disappear when travelers need water. Job asks them to show his error, face him, and hear his case without injustice.

griefbroken friendshipfeeling distant from God
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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;
17In the dry season, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.
19The caravans of Tema looked. The companies of Sheba waited for them.
20They were distressed because they were confident. They came there, and were confounded.
21For now you are nothing. You see a terror, and are afraid.
22Did I ever say, ‘Give to me’? or, ‘Offer a present for me from your substance’?
23or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand’? or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors’?
24“Teach me, and I will hold my peace. Cause me to understand my error.
25How forcible are words of uprightness! But your reproof, what does it reprove?
26Do you intend to reprove words, since the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind?
27Yes, you would even cast lots for the fatherless, and make merchandise of your friend.
28Now therefore be pleased to look at me, for surely I will not lie to your face.
29Please return. Let there be no injustice. Yes, return again. My cause is righteous.
30Is there injustice on my tongue? Can’t my taste discern mischievous things?
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Job 6:4The image of God’s poisoned arrows shows that Job’s terror includes his sense that God has turned against him.
Job 6:14Job names kindness as a friend’s duty, even toward someone whose fear of God is failing.
Job 6:15The vanishing brook begins Job’s extended picture of friends who fail when their help is most needed.
Where this chapter reaches

Psalm shares Job’s image of God’s arrows piercing a sufferer, while Jeremiah also uses a failing stream to describe disappointed trust. Proverbs shares the concern for faithful friendship and the difference between words that help and words that wound.

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After reading the whole chapter

What does Job ask his friends to understand before they judge his desperate words?

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How does the image of a vanishing stream shape your understanding of friendship in suffering?

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Questions people ask about Job 6

Why does Job ask God to kill him in Job 6?

Job says his suffering outweighs the sand of the seas and that his strength is exhausted. He asks God to end his life while maintaining that he has not denied the Holy One’s words. The speech records his despair; it gives no command for a sufferer to seek death.

What does Job 6:14 mean about kindness to a friend?

Job argues that a person close to collapse should receive kindness from a friend, even if that person forsakes the fear of the Almighty. In context, this challenges his friends’ treatment of him. Their concern about his words has left him without the support he expected from them.

Why does Job compare his friends to a brook?

Job pictures streams swollen with melting ice and snow that disappear in the heat. Caravans count on finding water there and face disaster when the channels are dry. His friends have disappointed him in the same way: he expected help, but their fear and accusations have left him unsupported.

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Job · 42 chapters
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What the Bible says about grief →What the Bible says about doubt →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).