Job 6:14

Eliphaz had been very severe in his censures of Job; and his companions, though as yet they had said little, yet had intimated their concurrence with him. Their unkindness therein poor Job here complains of, as an aggravation of his calamity and a further excuse of his desire to die; for what satisfaction could he ever expect in this world when those that should have been his comforters thus proved his tormentors?

I. He shows what reason he had to expect kindness from them. His expectation was grounded upon the common principles of humanity (Job 6:14): "To him that is afflicted, and that is wasting and melting under his affliction, pity should be shown from his friend; and he that does not show that pity forsakes the fear of the Almighty." Note, 1. Compassion is a debt owing to those that are in affliction. The least which those that are at ease can do for those that are pained and in anguish is to pity them, - to manifest the sincerity of a tender concern for them, and to sympathize with them, - to take cognizance of their case, enquire into their grievances, hear their complaints, and mingle their tears with theirs, - to comfort them, and to do all they can to help and relieve them: this well becomes the members of the same body, who should feel for the grievances of their fellow-members, not knowing how soon the same may be their own. 2. Inhumanity is impiety and irreligion. He that withholds compassion from his friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. So the Chaldee. How dwells the love of God in that man? Jo1 3:17. Surely those have no fear of the rod of God upon themselves who have no compassion for those that feel the smart of it. See Jam 1:27. 3. Troubles are the trials of friendship. When a man is afflicted he will see who are his friends indeed and who are but pretenders; for a brother is born for adversity, Pro 17:17; Pro 18:24.

II. He shows how wretchedly he was disappointed in his expectations from them (Job 6:15): "My brethren, who should have helped me, have dealt deceitfully as a brook." They came by appointment, with a great deal of ceremony, to mourn with him and to comfort him (Job 2:11); and some extraordinary things were expected from such wise, learned, knowing men, and Job's particular friends. None questioned but that the drift of their discourses would be to comfort Job with the remembrance of his former piety, the assurance of God's favour to him, and the prospect of a glorious issue; but, instead of this, they most barbarously fall upon him with their reproaches and censures, condemn him as a hypocrite, insult over his calamities, and pour vinegar, instead of oil, into his wounds, and thus they deal deceitfully with him. Note, It is fraud and deceit not only to violate our engagements to our friends, but to frustrate their just expectations from us, especially the expectations we have raised. Note, further, It is our wisdom to cease from man. We cannot expect too little from the creature nor too much from the Creator. It is no new thing even for brethren to deal deceitfully (Jer 9:4, Jer 9:5; Mic 7:5); let us therefore put our confidence in the rock of ages, not in broken reeds - in the fountain of life, not in broken cisterns. God will out-do our hopes as much as men come short of them. This disappointment which Job met with he here illustrates by the failing of brooks in summer.

1. The similitude is very elegant, Job 6:15-20. (1.) Their pretensions are fitly compared to the great show which the brooks make when they are swollen with the waters of a land flood, by the melting of the ice and snow, which make them blackish or muddy, Job 6:16. (2.) His expectations from them, which their coming so solemnly to comfort him had raised, he compares to the expectation which the weary thirsty travellers have of finding water in the summer where they have often seen it in great abundance in the winter, Job 6:19. The troops of Tema and Sheba, the caravans of the merchants of those countries, whose road lay through the deserts of Arabia, looked and waited for supply of water from those brooks. "Hard by here," says one, "A little further," says another, "when I last travelled this way, there was water enough; we shall have that to refresh us." Where we have met with relief or comfort we are apt to expect it again; and yet it does not follow; for, (3.) The disappointment of his expectation is here compared to the confusion which seizes the poor travellers when they find heaps of sand where they expected floods of water. In the winter, when they were not thirsty, there was water enough. Every one will applaud and admire those that are full and in prosperity. But in the heat of summer, when they needed water, then it failed them; it was consumed (Job 6:17); it was turned aside, Job 6:18. When those who are rich and high are sunk and impoverished, and stand in need of comfort, then those who before gathered about them stand aloof from them, those who before commended them are forward to run them down. Thus those who raise their expectations high from the creature will find it fail them when it should help them; whereas those who make God their confidence have help in the time of need, Heb 4:16. Those who make gold their hope will sooner or later be ashamed of it, and of their confidence in it (Eze 7:19); and the greater their confidence was the greater their shame will be: They were confounded because they had hoped, Job 6:20. We prepare confusion for ourselves by our vain hopes: the reeds break under us because we lean upon them. If we build a house upon the sand, we shall certainly be confounded, for it will fall in the storm, and we must thank ourselves for being such fools as to expect it would stand. We are not deceived unless we deceive ourselves.

2. The application is very close (Job 6:21): For now you are nothing. They seemed to be somewhat, but in conference they added nothing to him. Allude to Gal 2:6. He was never the wiser, never the better, for the visit they made him. Note, Whatever complacency we may take, or whatever confidence we may put, in creatures, how great soever they may seem and how dear soever they may be to us, one time or other we shall say of them, Now you are nothing. When Job was in prosperity his friends were something to him, he took complacency in them and their society; but "Now you are nothing, now I can find no comfort but in God." It were well for us if we had always such convictions of the vanity of the creature, and its insufficiency to make us happy, as we have sometimes had, or shall have on a sick-bed, a death-bed, or in trouble of conscience: "Now you are nothing. You are not what you have been, what you should be, what you pretend to be, what I thought you would have been; for you see my casting down and are afraid. When you saw me in my elevation you caressed me; but now that you see me in my dejection you are shy of me, are afraid of showing yourselves kind, lest I should thereby be emboldened to beg something of you, or to borrow" (compare Job 6:22); "you are afraid lest, if you own me, you should be obliged to keep me." Perhaps they were afraid of catching his distemper or of coming within smell of the noisomeness of it. It is not good, either out of pride or niceness, for love of our purses or of our bodies, to be shy of those who are in distress and afraid of coming near them. Their case may soon be our own.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

14. The most probable sense of the verse is this:—

Kindness from his friend is due to him that is despairing,

To him that is forsaking the fear of the Almighty.

The sense of the second clause proposed by some, else he will forsake the fear, is good in itself, but the language hardly admits it. The word “kindness” has the sense of reproach, Pro_14:34 (the verb, Pro_25:10, put to shame), and some adopt this sense here: if reproach from his friend fall upon him that is despairing, he will forsake the fear, &c. The word, however, is not used elsewhere in the Book of Job in this sense, and the interpretation destroys the strong antithesis between this verse and the opening words of the next, my brethren, &c.

14–30. Job’s sorrowful disappointment at the position taken up towards him by his three friends

Job had freely expressed his misery in ch. 3, believing that the sympathies of his friends were entirely with him. He is

a brother noble,

Whose nature is so far from doing harms

That he suspects none.

Lear, i. 2.

And more sorrowful to him than any cold, critical words which they have uttered is the feeling that his friends have taken up such a position against him. This was what he had not looked for. And his disappointment is like that of the thirsty caravan that finds the long-looked-for waters dried up in the heat. Every emotion seems now to find a place in Job’s mind in succession. First, his disappointment, expressed in this beautiful figure, is mixed with the feeling how unworthy his friends’ conduct was. They had not acted to him as men do to one who is, as he describes himself, “despairing” and “losing hold of the fear of the Almighty.” Kindness is due to such a one, but they had turned against him from sheer feebleness of spirit, because they saw that his calamity was from God, Job_6:14-21.

Second, this mixed sadness and contempt passes into sarcasm when he tells them that he could have understood their fear if he had asked anything from them—even one’s friends must not be put under that strain—but he sought only sympathy, Job_6:22-23.

Third, this sarcasm then gives place to a direct appeal of great severity, in which he demands that they should shew him the sins at which they had indirectly hinted, and wonders at their superficial captiousness in fastening on the mere excited words of a man in despair; adding in terms of bitter invective that their disposition was so hard that they would cast lots for the orphan and make market of their own friend, Job_6:24-27.

Finally, he challenges them to seek the explanation of his afflictions on other principles than the supposition of his guiltiness, asking them whether, in asserting his innocence, he would lie in their faces, and if he was not able to say whether his calamities were deserved or not? Job_6:28-30.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 6:14 To him that is afflicted pity [should be shewed] from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.

Ver. 14. To him that is afflicted] Heb. melted, viz. in the furnace of affliction, which melteth men’s hearts, and maketh them malleable, as fire doth the hardest metals, Psa 22:15 Jos 7:5.

Pity should be shewed from his friend] By a sweet tender melting frame of spirit, such as was that of the Church, Psa 102:13, and that of Paul, 2Co 11:29, "Who is weak, and I am not weak?" sc. by way of sympathy; "who is offended, and I burn not?" when others are hurt, I feel twinges: as the tongue complaineth for the hurt of the toe, and as the heart condoleth with the heel, and there is a fellow feeling amongst all the members; so there is likewise in the mystical body.

From his friend] Who is made for the day of adversity, Pro 17:17, and should show love at all times, and especially in evil times; but poor Job bewaileth the want of such faithful friends, Aφιλον το δυστυχες, Et cum fortuna statque caditque fides. David also complaineth to God, his only fast friend, of those that would be the causes, but not the companions, of his calamity, that would fawn upon him in his flourish, but forsake him in his misery. My lovers and friends stand aloof, &c., they looked on him, and so passed by him, as the priest and Levite did the wounded passenger, Luk 10:32. But God takes it ill that any should once look upon his afflicted, unless it be to pity and relieve them, Oba 1:12-13, and hath threatened an evil, an only evil, without the least mixture of mercy, to such as show no mercy to those in misery, Jas 2:13.

But he hath forsaken the fear of the Almighty] Which wheresoever it is in the power of it, frameth a man to all the duties both of piety and charity. Obadiah feared God greatly, and it well appeared by his pity to the persecuted prophets. Cornelius feared God, and (as a fruit of it) gave much alms, Act 10:2. Not so Nabal, that sapless fellow, whose heart was hardened from God’s holy fear; nor Judas the traitor, who had no heart of compassion towards his innocent Master; and therefore he burst in the midst with a huge crack (ελακησε μεσος), and all his bowels gushed out by a singular judgment, Act 1:18. There are many other readings of this text, as that of the Tigurine translation, It were fit for friends to show kindness to their friend that is in misery: but the fear of the Almighty hath forsaken me, as you please to say. See what Eliphaz had said to this purpose. {See Trapp on "Job 4:6"} Others read it thus, to him that is afflicted should reproach be given, that he hath forsaken the fear of the Almighty? q.d. Must a man therefore be reviled as irreligious because he is calamitous? The Vulgate translation runs thus, He that taketh away pity from his friend hath forsaken the fear of the Almighty, &c.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job_6:14-30

To him that is afflicted pity should be showed from his friend.

A message to doubters

Such is the rendering of the Authorised Version; but, unfortunately, it is a rendering which misses almost entirely the thought of the sacred writer. As a glance at the context will show, the words form a part of Jobs complaint against his friends. In the darkest hour of his need, when he was despairing, and ready to faint, when, as he says, he was forsaking or losing his hold of the fear of the Almighty, they had failed him. He had looked to them for kindness, for sympathy, and trust, and lo! they had turned against him; and what he says is this: To him that is ready to faint, kindness is due from his friend. Even to him that is forsaking the fear of the Almighty. And now, beside this retranslation, set this admirable comment from the pen of one of our most brilliant Old Testament scholars: How ignored, he says, this great verse has been! How different were the history of religion if men had kept it in mind! How much sweeter and swifter would the progress of Christianity have proved! The physicians of religious perplexity have too often been Jobs comforters; and the souls in doubt who should have been gathered to the heart of the Church, with as much pity and care as the penitent or the mourner, have been scorned, or cursed, or banished, or even put to death. My message is to doubters, to those who are forsaking or losing their hold of the fear of the Almighty. The ministers of the temple of truth, it has been happily said, are of three kinds: first, there are those stationed at the gate of the temple to constrain the passers-by to enter in; secondly, there are those whose function it is to accompany inside all who have been persuaded to enter, and display and explain to them the treasures and secrets of the place; and thirdly, there are those whose duty it is to patrol the temple, keeping watch and ward, and defending the shrine from the attacks of its enemies. It was, I need hardly say, this last duty which, in the providence of God, was assigned to Bishop Butler. With what marvellous vigilance and skill he performed his Divinely appointed task every student of his great work knows full well. Defences of Christianity usually become obsolete as rapidly as modern weapons of warfare. There is perhaps no class of literature to which the saying Every age must write its own books more literally applies than the literature of Apologetics. Nevertheless, greatly as the lines both of attack and defence have shifted since the days of Butler and the eighteenth century, there are few books in the whole range of religious literature which will so well repay the care of the student today as Butlers great Analogy. Forty-five years ago, Mr. Gladstone once wrote in a letter to his friend James Knowles, Bishop Butler taught me to suspend my judgment on things I knew I did not understand. Even with his aid, I may often have been wrong. Without him, I think I should never have been right. And, oh! that this age knew the treasure it possesses in him, and neglects. Without attempting to indicate even in outline the aim and purpose of Butlers work, two or three points may be singled out for special emphasis:

1. There is one lesson at least which no student of Butler can well fail to learn, namely, to treat serious things seriously. From his youth up Butler had been accustomed to meditate deeply on some of the greatest problems of life and religion. The search after truth, he tells us, he had made the business of his life. And it wounded him to the quick to hear men, who had given scarce as many days as he had given years to thinking about Christianity, calmly assuming it to be false, and with a light heart proclaiming to all the world that there was nothing in it. That a man should be compelled, reluctantly and sorrowfully compelled, to relinquish his old faith, and to sever the ties that bound him to his past--that Butler could understand. But that any man could witness the discrediting of Christianity with something like a chuckle of satisfaction and delight, filled him with amazement. Yes, Butler is very serious, serious, it has been well said, as a gamester, serious as a physician with life and death hanging on the clearness of his thoughts and the courage of his resolve, serious as a general with a terrible and evenly balanced battle on his hands. And is not this a temper which we need more and more to cultivate today in our handling of the great questions of religion? There is something truly heartrending in the fashion in which nowadays men will suffer themselves to reason about religion, cheerfully indifferent to the magnitude of the issues at stake. Christianity may be true, Christianity may be false; at least do not let us treat it as though its truth or falsity no more concerned us than the truth or falsity of a mathematical proposition. Let us realise what Christianity is, what it has done, what it is doing, before we strive to discredit its message to men. For, remember, if Christianity be destroyed, it will not mean simply that one star has faded from the firmament above us; it will mean that the sun has gone forever from our sky.

2. My next point will bring us into closer grips with our subject. Let me remind you, still following Butlers guidance, that intellectual difficulties may be for some of us a necessary part of our probation. I do not mean that this, even supposing it to be true, is sufficient to dispose of our difficulties. But it may help us to look upon them more calmly, more reasonably, if we can learn to think of them as our part in the vast and complex moral discipline which God has appointed for the perfecting of His children on earth. It is not unreasonable to conclude, as Butler does, that what constitutes, what chiefly and peculiarly constitutes, the probation of some may be the difficulties in which the evidence of religion is involved; and their principal and distinguished trial may be how they will behave under and with respect to these difficulties. Temptation, we know, assails every man; but the methods of the tempter are manifold. Some are tempted to covetousness, some to indulgence of the flesh, some to quick and angry speech, some to sullen gloom and moroseness. But for some among us God has willed it that our testing shall come in the uncertainties and doubts which crowd in upon our minds whensoever we contemplate Him and His truth. As the hammers stroke on the metal plate reveals the hidden flaw, so in our intellectual trials does God make proof of us. He discovers our pride, He lays bare our insincerity, He tests our love of truth, the moral soundness of our whole being. Blessed, thrice blessed, is he whose life rings true under that all-revealing stroke.

3. It may be, however, this is a line of argument which does not appeal to us. Then let us, still following Butlers guidance, seek the help we need by yet another path. Is not the root of most of the things which are objected against Christianity, and consequently of most of our difficulties in regard to it, in the limitations of our knowledge? And is it not the frank recognition of these limitations which is needed, perhaps above everything else, to win back for us our lost peace of mind? Some of you will remember the quiet scorn which Butler pours upon those who, as he says, are weak enough to think they are acquainted with the whole course of things. Let reason be kept to, he goes on; and, if any part of the Scripture account of the redemption of the world by Christ can be shown to be really contrary to it, let the Scripture, in the name of God, be given up; but let not such poor creatures as we go on objecting against an infinite scheme, that we do not see the necessity or usefulness of all its parts, and call this reasoning. We ask questions which no man can answer, questions to which Christ Himself has given us no answer, and then we murmur because the heavens are silent to our cry. Who will solve for us the grievous mystery of pain? Why is nature red in tooth and claw? Why do little children die? Why is all our life so full of griefs and graves? My God, my God, why--? Questions like these are naked swords, which pierce the hand that strives to grasp them. Men will meet, said an old Greek, with many surprises when they are dead; and perhaps, adds one of our modern thinkers, one will be the recollection that when we were here we thought the ways of Almighty God so easy to argue about.

4. But, if this is so, if, indeed, we know so little, how, it may be asked, is it possible to come to a decision at all? Press the argument from our ignorance to its logical conclusion, and what does it spell but intellectual suspense, the paralysis of action? What in the long-run is Butlers doctrine but just so much grist to the agnostics mill? But to argue thus is to forget what Butler himself is careful to point out, namely, that our knowledge, though limited, is real. We know in part, but we know; we see in a mirror darkly, but we see. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path--not more than that, but also not less than that; not light everywhere, for even revelation does not solve all questions, but light on my path, light to walk by. Many things are dark, but some at least are clear, and we can begin with these. Is not goodness the principal thing? Is not mans duty to follow after goodness, the highest goodness which is known to him? We needs must love the highest when we see it. And is not this highest goodness incarnate for us in Jesus Christ? Therefore, whatever else is dark, it must be right to follow Christ. Keep the things that perplex, and perhaps confound you, in their right place. Do not let them blind you to your first and plainest duty. After all, we are under no necessity to have a definite answer for every question which the restless wit of man can frame. Concerning many of them, it does not matter whether we have any opinion or not; neither if we have are we the better nor if we have not are we the worse. These things can wait. That which ought not to wait, which with many of us has waited far too long already, is our decision to yield ourselves to Christ. Once more I say, Whatever else is dark, it must be right to follow Christ. (G. Jackson, B. A.)

Mistaken friendship

It would be unfair to call the three men false friends. They were sincere, but being mistaken, they failed to discharge the high offices of true friendship.

I. There are times in a mans life when the need of friendship is deeply felt.

1. Man was made for friendship. Deep and constant is his craving for the love of others, and equally deep and strong is his tendency to reciprocate the same. Without friendship his nature could no more be developed than could the acorn without the sunshine or the shower. Isolation would be mans death, solitary confinement has always been felt the most severe and intolerable of punishments.

2. Man requires friendship. Without the aid of friendship he would die in infancy; he requires friendship to nourish, to succour, and to train him.

3. Affliction intensifies the need of friendship. In times of suffering the need of friendship is specially felt.

II. At these times professed friends are often terribly disappointing. Job says in language of great poetic beauty and tenderness, that he was as much disappointed with his friends now as were the troop of Tema, and the companies of Sheba, who travelling over the hot sand, parched and wearied, came to a spot where they expected to find refreshing streams and found none. My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, etc. He does not mean perhaps that they were false, but that they deceived him not intentionally but by mistake.

1. Instead of pity they gave him unsympathetic talk. Had they wept and said nothing he would have been comforted; or had they spoken to the point and expressed sympathy he might have been comforted; or had they tenderly acknowledged the mystery of the Divine procedure in all, it might have soothed in some measure his anguished heart. But Eliphaz talked grandly and perhaps with a cold heart, he never touched the mark but by implication, charged him with being a great sinner because he was a great sufferer, and strongly reprobated his language of distress.

2. Instead of pity they gave him intrusive talk. Did I say bring unto me, or give a reward for me of your substance? etc. If a man applies to his friends for pecuniary aid, and that aid is refused him he may be disappointed, but he cannot at once condemn them and charge them with unkindness, as they may be under circumstances which render it perfectly impossible for them to comply with his request. But if he asks of them nothing but commiseration and sympathy, and even these are denied him, he cannot but consider such denial as a great piece of inhumanity and cruelty. Now this was precisely the case with Job.--Bernard.

3. Instead of pity they gave him irrelevant talk. Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; and cause me to understand wherein I have erred. How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing prove? etc. In all this he evidently reproves Eliphaz for the irrelevancy of his talk. He seems to say, you have not taught me anything, you have not explained the true cause of my affliction. Nothing that you have said is applicable to me in my miserable condition.

4. Instead of pity they gave him ungenerous talk. Here the patriarch acknowledges that the extravagant language which, in the wildness of his anguish, he used in the fourth chapter was mere wind. Do you imagine to reprove words? etc., and states that their carping at such utterances was as cruel as the overwhelming of the fatherless. Language spoken in certain moods of mind should be allowed to pass by, almost without notice. Anguish often maddens the mind, and causes the tongue to run riot. It is ungenerous in friends to notice language which, under the tide of strong emotions, may be forced from us.

(1) He urges them to look upon him, and not at his words.

(2) He assures them of the sincerity even of his language. I have an inner sense by which I can determine what is right or wrong in speech. Mistaken friendship is sometimes as pernicious and irritating as false friendship. (Homilist.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 6:14. To him that is afflicted — Hebrew, To him that is melted, or dissolved with afflictions: or, as Dr. Waterland renders it, To one that is wasting away; pity should be showed from his friend — His friend, such as thou, O Eliphaz, pretendest to be to me, should show kindness and compassion in his judgment of him, and behaviour toward him, and not pass such unmerciful censures upon him as thou hast passed upon me, nor load him with reproaches; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty — Thou hast no love or pity for thy friend; a plain evidence that thou art guilty of what thou didst charge me with, even of the want of the fear of God. The least which those that are at ease can do for them that are pained, is to pity them, to feel a tender concern for them, and to sympathize with them.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Second strophe — The withholding of sympathy has been like the failure of a summer brook, Job_6:14-17.

14. The pity his condition calls for, they (his friends) have denied him.

To him, etc. — Literally, To the despairing, from his friend, (is) pity. The pity of a friend is spontaneous. Its flow to such a despairing sufferer as Job is like a fountain, natural and unforced. Their sympathy has consisted of words and ceremony; hence they are not true friends. This prepares us for the coming portrayal of deceitful friendship.

Afflicted — מס, literally, melted down, dissolved; a graphic description of the effect of sorrow on Job.

Pity — Umbreit says of pity, hhesedh, (which may be rendered also kindness or love,) that it is the friendly and indulgent judgment of our fellow-men; the true love which is the spirit of Christianity; and it is put (Pro_3:3) on a par with truth. They together form the principal elements of moral perfection, and are recommended to our care as a double talisman of perfect virtue.

But he forsaketh — Concerning the meaning of the preceding clause there is but little doubt; the confessedly great difficulty of the present clause turns for the most part on the rendering of the particle but ו. The old reading of the Targum, Vulgate, Luther, “He who withholds mercy from his neighbour, he forsakes the fear of the Almighty,” entirely ignores the particle, and is now, with the exception of Merx, quite given up. Some modern expositors, such as Schlottmann, Renan, Dillmann, and Zockler, read, “Even if he should have forsaken,” etc. The more satisfactory exposition is that of Delitzsch, Schnurrer, Hengstenberg, Wordsworth, Canon Cook, etc., “Otherwise he forsaketh.” etc., that is, unless he receives pity from his friend — a reading that is justified by the occasional use of the particle, as in Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 397. For want of human sympathy a man may fall away from his God. Nothing can more forcibly express the power of Christian love. It is conservative — it may keep others from evil. A kind word, a sympathetic tear, a charitable deed, is a little thing, but an engine of might that any one may wield. Sympathy, oneness of feeling, is a magic power to lift the sorrowful and despairing up from the abyss. It is like the golden chain let down from heaven, as the ancients fabled. Through sympathy the resources of the one, supplement the weakness of another. The field of responsibility vastly enlarges, when we behold it embracing the little deeds of charitable love we might have done. If sorrow could enter heaven, it would be because we have done so little for Christ and his suffering ones on earth.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14 To him who is consumed gentleness is due from his friend,

Otherwise he might forsake the fear of the Almighty.

15 My brothers are become false as a torrent,

As the bed of torrents which vanish away -

16 They were blackish from ice,

Snow is hidden in them -

17 In the time, when warmth cometh to them, they are destroyed.

It becometh hot, they are extinguished from their place.

Ewald supplies between Job 6:14 and Job 6:14 two lines which have professedly fallen out ("from a brother sympathy is due to the oppressed of God, in order he may not succumb to excessive grief"). Hitzig strongly characterizes this interpolation as a "pure swindle." There is really nothing wanting; but we need not even take חסד, with Hitz., in the signification reproach (like Pro 14:34): if reproach cometh to the sufferer from his friend, he forsaketh the fear of God. מס (from מסס, liquefieri) is one who is inwardly melted, the disheartened. Such an one should receive חסד from his friend, i.e., that he should restore him ἐν πνεύματι πραΰ́τητος (Gal 6:1). The waw (Job 6:14) is equivalent to alioqui with the future subjunctive (vid., Ges. 127, 5). Harshness might precipitate him into the abyss from which love will keep him back. So Schnurrer: Afflicto exhibenda est ab amico ipsius humanitas, alioqui hic reverentiam Dei exuit. Such harshness instead of charity meets him from his brothers, i.e., friends beloved as brothers. In vain he has looked to them for reviving consolation. Theirs is no comfort; it is like the dried-up water of a wady. נחל is a mountain or forest brook, which comes down from the height, and in spring is swollen by melting ice and the snow that thaws on the mountain-tops; χειμάῤῥους, i.e., a torrent swollen by winter water. The melting blocks of ice darken the water of such a wady, and the snow falling together is quickly hidden in its bosom (התעלּם). If they begin to be warmed (Pual זרב, cognate to צרב, Eze 21:3, aduri, and שׂרף, comburere), suddenly they are reduced to nothing (נצמת, exstingui); they vanish away בּחמּו, when it becomes hot. The suffix is, with Ew., Olsh., and others, to be taken as neuter; not with Hirz., to be referred to a suppressed את: when the season grows hot. job bewails the disappointment he has experienced, the "decline" of charity

(Note: Oetinger says that Job 6:15-20 describe those who get "consumption" when they are obliged to extend "the breasts of compassion" to their neighbour.)

still further, by keeping to the figure of the mountain torrent.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

6:14-27 Job and his friends might have been bound by a covenant of loyalty and faithfulness (Hebrew khesed; see Gen 21:23; Exod 15:13; 1 Chr 16:34) that made them like brothers (Job 6:14-15), protectors (6:21-23), and trusted friends (6:27). If this was the case, Job was accusing his friends of violating their covenant with him.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

pity--a proverb. Charity is the love which judges indulgently of our fellow men: it is put on a par with truth in Pro 3:3, for they together form the essence of moral perfection [UMBREIT]. It is the spirit of Christianity (Pe1 4:8; Co1 13:7; Pro 10:12; Pro 17:17). If it ought to be used towards all men, much more towards friends. But he who does not use it forsaketh (renounceth) the fear of the Almighty (Jam 2:13).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 14. To him that is afflicted pity should be showed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.] The Vulgate gives a better sense, Qui tollit ab amico suo misericordiam, timorem Domini dereliquit, "He who takes away mercy from his friend, hath cast off the fear of the Lord." The word למס lammas, which we render to him who is AFFLICTED, from מסה masah, to dissolve, or waste away, is in thirty-two of Dr. Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. למאס lemoes, "to him that despiseth his friend;" and hence the passage may be read: To him who despiseth his friend, it is a reproach; and he will forsake the fear of the Almighty: or, as Mr. Good translates,

"Shame to the man who despiseth his friend!

He indeed hath departed from the fear of the Almighty."

Eliphaz had, in effect, despised Job; and on this ground had acted any thing but the part of a friend towards him; and he well deserved the severe stroke which he here receives. A heathen said, Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur; the full sense of which we have in our common adage:-

A FRIEND IN NEED is a FRIEND INDEED

Job's friends, so called, supported each other in their attempts to blacken the character of this worthy man; and their hand became the heavier, because they supposed the hand of God was upon him. To each of them, individually, might be applied the words of another heathen: -

_____________ Absentem qui rodit amicum,

Qui non defendit alio culpante; solutos

Qui captat risus hominum, famamque dicacis,

Fingere qui non visa potest; commissa tacere

Qui nequit; hic niger est; hunc tu, Romane, caveto.

HOR. Satyr. lib. i., s. iv., ver. 81.

He who, malignant, tears an absent friend;

Or, when attack'd by others, don't defend;

Who trivial bursts of laughter strives to raise,

And courts, of prating petulance, the praise;

Of things he never saw who tells his tale,

And friendship's secrets knows not to conceal;__

This man is vile; here, Roman, fix your mark;

His soul's as black as his complexion's dark.

FRANCIS.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(14) But he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.—It is difficult to determine the precise relation of dependent clauses in an archaic language like the Hebrew; but the Authorised Version is, at all events, not correct here, the sense rather being, “Even to one that forsaketh the fear of the Almighty;” or, perhaps, better still, “lest he should forsake;” or, “he may even forsake,” &c.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook,.... Meaning his three friends, represented by Eliphaz, who were of the same sentiments with him, and behaved towards Job as he did: these were his brethren not by birth by blood nor by country, but by the profession of the same religion of the one true and living God in opposition to the idolatrous people among whom they dwelt; and this their relation to him is an aggravation of their perfidy and treachery, unfaithfulness and deceit, by which is meant their balking and disappointing him in his expectations; when they came to visit him as friends, he might reasonably expect they came to condole and sympathize with him, and comfort him; but, instead of this they reproached him and grieved him, and were miserable comforters of him; and this he illustrates by the simile of a "brook", which he enlarges upon in the following verses: these friends and brethren of his he compares to a "brook", not that was fed by a spring which continues, but filled with falls of water and melting snows from the hills, with which it is swelled, and looks like a large river for a while, but when these fail it is soon gone; hereby representing his friends in his state of prosperity, who looked big, and promised long and lasting friendship, but proved, in time of adversity, unfaithful and deceitful; and so it denotes the fickleness and inconstancy of their friendship:

and as the stream of brooks they pass away: or, "pass by" (g), as a stream of water, fed by many brooks, or flows of water like unto many brooks, which run with great rapidity and force, and are quickly gone and seen no more; thus his friends, as such, passed by him, and were of no use to him any more than the priest and Levite were to the man that fell among thieves, Luk 10:30.

(g) "praetereunt", Mercerus, Schmidt; "transeunt", Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

To him that is afflicted - Margin, “melteth.” The word here used (מס mâs) is from מסס mâsas, to melt, flow down, waste away, and here means one who pines away, or is consumed under calamities. The design of this verse is, to reprove his friends for the little sympathy which they had shown for him. He had looked for consolation in his trials, and he had a right to expect it; but he says that he had met with just the opposite, and that his calamity was aggravated by the fact that they had dealt only in the language of severity.

Pity should be showed from his friend - Good renders this, “shame to the man who despiseth his friend.” A great variety of interpretations have been proposed of the passage, but our translation has probably expressed the true sense. If there is any place where kindness should be shown, it is when a man is sinking under accumulated sorrows to the grave.

But he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty - This may be either understood as referring to the language which Job says they had used of him - charging him with forsaking the fear of God, instead of consoling him; or it may mean that they had forsaken the fear of God in reproaching him, and in failing to comfort him; or it may mean that if such kindness were not shown to a friend in trial, he would be left to cast off the fear of God. This last interpretation is adopted by Noyes. Good supposes that it is designed to be a severe reproach of Eliphaz, for the course which he had pursued. It seems to me that this is probably the correct interpretation, and that the particle ו (v) here is used in an adversative sense, meaning that while it was an obvious dictate of piety to show kindness to a friend, Eliphaz had forgotten this obligation, and had indulged himself in a strain of remark which could not have been prompted by true religion. This sentiment he proceeds to illustrate by one of the most beautiful comparisons to be found in any language.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

To him that is afflicted, Heb. to him that is melted or dissolved with afflictions, or in the furnace of afflictions; that is, in extreme miseries; for such persons are said to be melted, as Psa 22:14; 107:26; 119:28; Nah 2:10.

From his friend: his friend, such as thou, O Eliphaz, pretendest to be to me, should show kindness, benignity, and compassion in his judgment of him, and carriage towards him, and not pass such unmerciful and heavy censures upon him, nor load him with reproaches.

But he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty; but thou hast no love or pity for thy neighbour and friend; which is a plain evidence that thou art guilty of that which thou didst charge me with, even with the want of the fear of God; for didst thou truly fear God, thou couldst not, and durst not, be so unmerciful to thy brother, both because God hath severely forbidden and condemned that disposition and carriage, and because God is able to punish thee for it, and mete unto thee the same hard measure which thou meetest to me. But this verse is and may be otherwise rendered, Should a reproach (for so the Hebrew chesed oft signifies) be laid upon him that is afflicted by his friend, even that he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty? Should my friend have fastened such a reproach upon me, than which none is worse, that I am an impious man, and destitute of the fear of God, Job 4:6-8. This he mentions, as that which was most grievous and intolerable to him.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

To him that is afflicted pity should be showed from his friend. Job begins here the third head of his reply to Eliphaz, in which he attacks him and his companions. The first duty of a comforter is to compassionate his afflicted friend, to condole with him, and show his sympathy with his sufferings. This is what every one looks for and expects as a matter of course. But Job has looked in vain. He has received no pity, no sympathy. Nothing has been offered him but arguments. And what arguments! How do they touch the point? How are they anything more than a venting of the speaker"s own self-righteousness? Let them fairly consider his case, and point out to him where he has been blamable. But he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty; rather, even though he forsake the fear of the Almighty, or else might he forsake the fear of the Almighty. Job certainly does not mean to admit that he has renounced the fear of God, and become an apostate from religion; but only to assert, either, that, even had he done so, his friends ought still to have shown him kindness, or else that their not showing him kindness is the very way to drive him to apostasy.

Vers. 14-30. Job to Eliphaz: 2. Reproofs and retorts.

I UNKINDNESS REPROVED. The behaviour of Eliphaz (and his friends) was:

1. Unnatural. Compassion for a suffering fellow-creature, much more for a friend, was a dictate of humanity (ver. 14). The condition of Job preeminently claimed pitiful consideration. He was not only melting away, bodily and mentally, but spiritually he was in danger of "forsaking the fear of the Almighty," i.e. losing his hold on God, on God"s love and favour towards himself, and, as a consequence, on his integrity before and confidence in God. (Psa_38:6 Psa_69:2) The withholding of sympathy from one in his condition was a deplorable dereliction of duty and a manifest token of unfeeling barbarity.

2. Inconsistent. Besides being a dictate of nature, the law of kindness is one of the plainest precepts of religion, (Lev_19:18 Luk_10:37 Rom_12:10-15 Jam_1:27) and its fulfilment one of the surest marks of moral and spiritual perfection. (Psa_112:4 Pro_31:26 Rom_13:8 1Pe_1:22 1Jn_4:12) The absence, therefore, of pity on the part of Eliphaz and his friends argued them destitute of genuine religion, or, according to another reading of the clause, showed them to be "forsaking the fear of Shaddai.

3. Injurious. A third interpretation understands Job to say that Eliphaz"s lack of sympathy had rendered it more difficult for him, Job, to believe in the kindness of his heavenly Friend was, in fact, enough to cause him to forsake the fear of the Almighty. Earthly relationships were undoubtedly designed to be helpful for the right understanding of God"s relationship towards men; a father"s love to be an emblem of that of the Divine Father; (Deu_8:5 Psa_103:13 Mat_7:11) a friend"s pity to interpret that of the Elder Brother. (Pro_18:24) Hence the responsibility of so fulfilling these relationships that men shall be assisted rather than hindered on their heavenward way.

4. Disappointing. Eliphaz and his friends had deceived Job like a brook (ver. 15), like the dried-up water of a mountain wady. The image, applied by Job to his brethren (ver. 21) consists of four parts.

(1) The winter torrent, noisy and full, turbid and swollen by thick blocks of floating ice and fast-falling flakes of snow, rushing down the precipitous ravine, and attracting by its loud roar and white foam the attention of desert travellers as they pass (ver. 16), an emblem of the loud and profuse protestations of friendship which were made by Eliphaz and his companions at a time when Job did not require them, and which gave promise of long continuance, like the waters of the brook.

(2) The dry river-bed in summer-time, from which the streams have vanished, leaving only heaps of shingle or piles of boulders (ver. 17), an emblem of the quickness and completeness with which the loud-mouthed protestations of Job"s friends had disappeared, having gone to nothing, like the winter torrent, the hot sun that had shrivelled them up being Job"s deplorable and ghastly condition (ver. 21).

(3) The desert caravans turning aside in search of the water they had formerly observed, being still attracted by the unusual brightness and verdure of the wadys (vers. 18, 19), an emblem of the eagerness and confidence with which Job had anticipated sympathy and succour from his friends.

(4) The consternation of the travellers, going up into the waste and perishing, being confounded at the miserable disappointment of their sanguine expectations, and ashamed that they had put their trust in what was so proverbially treacherous (ver. 20), an emblem of the utter collapse of Job"s hope and expectation from the coming of his friends.

5. Unreasonable. Job had not asked them for any great evidence of friendship, neither to relieve his sufferings by charitable gifts, nor to repair his losses by munificent contributions from their personal property, nor to restore his ruined fortunes by recovering them from the Chaldeans and Sabeans, as Abram delivered Lot and his goods from the hands of Chedorlaomer. (Gen_14:14) Simply he had craved their sympathy a small enough boon, which would not have much impoverished them; and yet even that they had withheld. Jonathan dealt otherwise with David. (1Sa_23:16)

II INSINUATION REPELLED. The imputation which underlay the whole harangue of Eliphaz, Job resented as:

1. Unproved. "Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred." A perfectly reasonable demand, since conviction should always precede condemnation. So Christ challenged his countrymen first to convince him of sin. (Joh_8:46) And it is manifestly absurd to expect that men will listen to admonitions who are unconscious of having committed faults. Even God does not exhort to repentance without having first demonstrated man"s guilt. The first function of the Holy Spirit is to convince the world of sin. (Joh_16:8) Job"s language also indicative of an honest and ingenuous mind. Willingness to be taught is a sign of humility and a token of sincerity. "A man that is willing to be taught is in a better condition than many who are able to teach. It argues a holier temper of the heart to be willing to be taught than to be able to teach. And it is far worse to be unwilling to learn than not to be knowing" (Caryl).

2. Ungenerous. While words of uprightness, i.e. honest speech, plain dealing, even reproof when necessary, had a force which Job could not resist, a pertinency he could not challenge, and a pungency he could not fail to feel and acknowledge, their language had been wholly mean and contemptible, fastening as it did on the despairing utterances of a poor wretch half-crazed with grief, which common consent allows should be regarded as wind, or given to the wind, as idle, meaningless, shifting, and therefore not to be too closely criticized, far less made the basis of a charge of guilt. And Job"s contention was substantially correct. Words thrown off in a hasty moment, under the influence of strong passion, are not always a perfectly safe and reliable index to the character of the soul, at least when judged by man. God alone is competent to estimate man"s moral and spiritual condition by his words. (Mat_12:37) All others should be guided by charity in interpreting the speech of agonized men. (1Co_13:5)

3. Heartless. The men who could so make him an offender for a word were in Job"s estimation capable of any baseness, such pitiless and inhuman ruffians as would "enslave an orphan for his father"s debt, and then cast lots whose he should be" (Cox), or barter their dearest friend for pelf. Probably Job overstrained the case against Eliphaz and his companions; but men have perpetrated the villainies described, as e.g. the brethren of Joseph (Gen_37:28) and Judas. (Mat_26:15)

4. Untrue. Job requests his friends to look into his face and say whether he did not carry the refutation of their slanders in his countenance (ver. 28). The face is commonly a mirror to the soul. The glory of a pure soul shines through the face, illuminating, refining, realizing it; just as the moral gloom that enshrouds s wicked soul leaves its impress on the countenance, rendering its features coarse, brutal, sordid, revolting. There are faces that proclaim the depravity of the soul within as certainly as there are noble countenances that bear their own certificate of truth, sincerity, moral honesty, and spiritual refinement.

5. Unfair. The friends had started with a prejudice against Job, and, as a consequence, their decision had not been impartial. Accordingly, he invites them to renew their investigation, but on other principles and presuppositions: "Return, I pray you; let there be no unfairness, and my righteousness will be found to stand" (ver. 29).

6. Insulting. Their insinuation practically charged Job with being a moral imbecile, who had no capacity to discriminate between right and wrong an assumption he resented with the utmost vigour (ver. 30), maintaining that, as surely as his palate could distinguish meats, his moral sense could discern right and wrong in the matter of his sufferings, and generally in the providential government of the world of which he next proceeds to speak. The capacity to distinguish between right and wrong is the highest function of intelligence, and is as certainly capable of perversion and obscuration through willful ignorance and sin as susceptible of education and refinement through Christian instruction and practical holiness.

Learn:

1. The duty of sympathizing with the suffering and sorrowful. Nature prompts to it; religion enjoins it; humanity claims it; the afflicted expect Job_2:2. The danger of putting stumbling-blocks in the way, to either keep men or withdraw men from the fear of God.

2. The folly of trusting in either princes or men"s sons, seeing that man"s goodness is commonly (except where grace intervenes)as transient as his greatness.

3. The painfulness of being deceived by any, but especially by those we trust.

4. The certain disappointment of those who lock to failing brooks for the water of eternal life.

5. The wickedness of censuring for sins that have been neither proved nor admitted.

6. The liability of man to error, and the only sure and certain pathway to truth, viz. a spirit of humble docility.

7. Truth is less dependent on argumentation than men are apt to suppose, being generally its own best witness.

Vers. 14-21. The illusions of friendship.

Oh, how sweet and blessed at this hour would the ministries of true friendship be! Job, in the shipwreck of fortune and of health, is like a poor swimmer clinging to a spar or fragment of rock with ebbing strength, looking vainly for the lifeboat, and the strong, rescuing arms of friends and saviours. Instead of this, his friends stand aloof, and lecture and lesson him on the supposed folly which has steered his bark upon the breakers. Here we see in one glance the greatest danger to which a human soul can be exposed, and the greatest service one human being can render another.

I THE GREATEST HUMAN PERIL. What is it? The loss of life? Not in the common sense of those words. For the loss of life in this world is not necessarily the loss of the soul. The loss of worldly goods? Still less; for a man"s life consisteth not in these. The loss of family, of reputation, of health? All these may be repaired; but the loss of God is irreparable. The mangled tree may sprout again, and send forth vigorous suckers from its root; but how if that root itself be extirpated from its holding? It is the horror in the prospect of losing reverence, trust of losing God that now looms upon the patriarch"s soul. We need only refer to the twenty-second psalm to those words quoted by our Saviour in the agony on the cross to remind ourselves of the fearfulness of this last trial to every godly soul,

II THE GREATEST HUMAN MINISTRY. It is to do something to save a sinking brother from such a fate. A cheerful faith is infectious. A noble courage will thrill in the vibrations of sympathy to another"s soul. And this is, then, the best office our friends can discharge for us in our greatest troubles. Let them remind us by their words, their prayers, their looks, their tones, of God. Let them not throw a new burden upon our drooping consciousness by reminding us of what we are or are not, but relieve us by telling us of what he is and ever will be the Refuge and Strength of them that seek him. And this may be a fitting place to speak generally of

III THE QUALITIES OF FRIENDSHIP. By a beautiful image Job describes the failure of friendship. An unfaithful or unintelligent friend is like a brook swollen with snow and rain in spring-time, but dried in its channel under the scorching heat of summer. The poet says of one who has been lost to his sorrowing companions by deathHe is gone from the mountain, He is lost to the forest, Like a summer-dried fountain, When our need was the sorest!

The pathos of those words is, alas I applicable to living but absent or unsympathetic friends. There is nothing more beautiful or more useful in all the world than true friendship. Perhaps as "all other things seem to be symbols of love, so love is the highest symbol of friendship." But for the service of friendship there must be:

1. Constant affection. The equal flow of a deep river, not the intermittent gushings of a fickle fountain.

2. Habitual sympathy. We must feel with our friend so long as he is our friend. There are crimes which will break up this holy tie. Connivance at guilt can be no part of this sacred covenant. But so long as I can call my friend my friend, I must bear with his infirmities, "not make them greater than they are." How unhappy the knack of seeing all that can be said against our friend, with blindness to all that can be urged in his favour! We dread the coming of these "candid friends," so called. If there are unpleasant truths, let him hear them from another"s lips than ours. Let not the troubles of those we own by this sacred name be made occasions for airing the conceit of our superior wisdom, or indulging a vein of moralizing, but for unlocking all the treasures of our heart.

3. Lively imagination. Want of imagination, or, in other words, dulness and stupidity, is a great defect for general social intercourse. Men quarrel and fly asunder because they do not understand one another. They do not use the faculty of imagination to "put themselves in another"s place." And what may hinder general intercourse may be a fatal bar to friendship. "I am not understood:" what commoner complaint? Yet what is this high faculty given us for, but that, under the guidance of Christian love, we may identity another heart with our own, appropriate all its sorrowful experiences, and think and speak and feel towards others, as well as do unto them, as we would they should do unto us? But these demands for an ideal friendship are not, after all, to be satisfied by frail human nature. Let us, then, think:

4. These qualities of friendship can be only fully found in God. The Divine Friend! he whose unfailing, self-replenished love alone is equal to supply the thirst of our hearts, whose sympathy is that of One who knows us better than we know ourselves; who numbers our hairs, and gathers our tears into his bottle; who needs to exercise no imagination in order to realize our condition, because he knows! O God! greater than our hearts, whose knowledge is the measure of thy sympathy, whose sympathy is fed from the eternal well-spring of thy love; God manifested in Jesus Christ; thou only art the Friend of our sorrow, the Sustainer of our help.

LESSONS. May we listen with humble obedience to the voice which says to us, "Henceforth I call you friends"! As life wears, and many shallow torrents of earthly kindness are dried, may we experience more profoundly thy never-wasting fulness! J.

The claims of the suffering on the pity of friends.

Job"s friends come to condole with him. They are staggered by the severity of his sufferings, and remain silenced before him. When they open their lips they seem not only to try to account for the affliction, but they also appear to be anxious to justify their own inability to comfort their suffering friend. Their words add to Job"s heavy affliction instead of lightening his burden, and he cries out in his bitterness, "To him that is afflicted pity should be showed from his friend." To whom should the suffering one turn if not to end? We see at once, in such circumstances, a friend"s duty and a friend"s demand.

I A FRIEND"S DUTY.

1. The true office of friendship is to enter fully into the circumstances of the friend; not to be indifferent to them, and therefore ignorant. True affection will inquire gently, wisely, and with care into the state, and the need, and the sorrow, and the hopes of the object of its attachment. Not for meddlesome curiosity, but from loving interest the friend"s heart will open to take in the tale of sorrow, even the words of complaint.

2. True friendship will lovingly sympathize. The eager pleading of the casual beggar strikes upon the closed ear of the stranger. No chord of pitiful sympathy vibrates, and no hand of help is outstretched. But to the appeals of friendship the heart opens; warm sympathy is stirred. The fluttering spirit finds rest on the besom of a friend. It is a duty one friend owes to another to show the utmost pitifulness of spirit a pitifulness that should ripen to loving sympathy. No hardening of the heart, no refusal to be patient, no selfishness, can be found in the breast of the true friend.

3. True friendship will be ready with its help, springing forth with spontaneous eagerness to aid and comfort. It is possible for the friend to stick closer than a brother; and he shows the true spirit of a friend who, feeling perfectly at one with his loved companion, renders willing help to him.

4. The friendship which stimulates to pitiful and loving help in need rejoices also in the joy, the prosperity, and well-being of him to whom it cleaves. The two lives are one. David and Jonathan illustrate this, and happily a thousand examples are around us daily. He that findeth a true friend findeth a precious possession a prize whose worth cannot be estimated.

II FOR THIS LOVING SYMPATHY AND PITIFUL HELPFULNESS EVERY ONE MAY MAKE HIS JUST AND REASONABLE DEMAND ON HIS FRIEND. Friendship has its duties of fidelity, of kindness, and help; of confidence, trust, and good will. It has also its claims. It is a silent, mutual compact each preparing to give that which it demands of the other; each expecting that which it knows it can bestow. It is the supreme satisfaction of true friendship that either of its members may turn to other in the confident, unquestioning assurance of meeting with true sympathy, with an open hand and a warm heart. For this friendship looks, and this it is justified in expecting. A faithful friend"s love faileth not; for "a friend loveth always." Even his very "wounds" are "faithful." Happy he who has found a friend in whom he can place the whole faith of his heart; and who is ready to reciprocate the same full, thorough, and trustworthy affection!

1. The wisdom of seeking a friend.

2. The law: "He that would have friends must show himself friendly. R.G.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To him - Hebrew. to him that is melted or dissolved with affections. But. &c. - But thou hast no pity for thy friend; a plain evidence that thou art guilty of what thou didst charge me with, even of the want of the fear of God. The least which those that are at ease can do for them that are pained, is to pity them, to feel a tender concern for them, and to sympathize with them.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

fear

(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job Criticizes Eliphaz for his Conduct

v. 14. To him that is affiliated pity should be showed from his friend, or, to him who is melting on account of the fierceness of his misery, and therefore in despair, gentleness should be shown by his friends; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty, rather, even if he should, or, lest he should, forsake the fear of the Almighty. Friends worthy of the name should stand by one who is in misery and distress, lest he give way entirely to despair and forsake the Lord.

v. 15. My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, false and treacherous as a torrent, as an arroyo in the wilderness, which presents a dry bed at just the time when water is most needed, and as the stream of brooks they pass away, torrents which overflow one day and disappear on the next, absolutely unreliable;

v. 16. which are blackish, turbid, dark, foul, by reason of the ice, as the melting ice is carried down by the spring floods, and wherein the snow is hid, seeming to offer a solid surface to stand on, but in reality altogether treacherous;

v. 17. what time they wax warm, they vanish, after the short spring flow, which seemed to carry so much promise, their bed is soon parched; when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place, altogether extinguished. To this characterization of unreliable friends Job adds a description of the disappointment which filled his heart on account of the attitude of his visitors.

v. 18. The paths of their way are turned aside, their course winds hither and thither, just like that of the arroyos in the wilderness; they go to nothing, and perish, vanishing out in the desert wastes, sinking from sight, failing men when they are most in need of water.

v. 19. The troops of Tema looked, the caravans of a nomadic tribe in Northern Arabia, the companies of Sheba waited for them, hoping to obtain water for their parched lips. In Job’s picture his friends are the unreliable arroyos, while he is the thirsty traveler searching for a drink of cooling water.

v. 20. They were confounded because they had hoped, put to shame on account of their confident hope, just as Job was in this instance; they came thither, and, were ashamed, red with shame on account of the deceit which they finally perceived, betrayed by a lying brook.

v. 21. For now ye are nothing, they had shown that they did not exist as real friends; ye see my casting down, and are afraid, full of terror and dismay, fearing to identify themselves with one whom they believed struck down by the wrath of God.

v. 22. Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance? He had not asked any sacrifice from them, had not even desired a gift from them; he had expected only the sympathy of true friends.

v. 23. Or, Deliver me from the enemy’s hand? or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty, of the oppressor? He had never yet asked for such a proof of their friendship; therefore he was all the more sorely disappointed at their failing to show even the least friendly interest in him and compassion for him.

v. 24. Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; he was willing to be set right and to cease his complaint; and cause me to understand wherein I have erred, this being preferable to any silent or open accusation on their part.

v. 25. How forcible are right words, such as are based upon sound knowledge! But what doth your arguing reprove? What Job missed so sorely in the case of his friends was this, that they did not substantiate their accusations, that they judged merely according to their feelings.

v. 26. Do ye imagine to reprove words, were they trying to fasten only upon the words which his misery pressed out of his mouth, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind? They had his blameless conduct to judge him by and should draw no conclusions from his present complaints.

v. 27. Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, like unrelenting creditors they would cast lots for the orphans left by a debtor to make them bondservants, and ye dig a pit for your friend, trafficking or bargaining for him, to sell him as a slave; they were traitors to the cause of true friendship.

v. 28. Now, therefore, be content, look upon me, they should be pleased to scrutinize his face closely; for it is evident unto you if I lie, they would be able to read in his face whether he were really the hypocrite they supposed him to be.

v. 29. Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; yea, return again, my righteousness is in it. They should turn from their present position of unfriendly suspicion and make a careful examination of his case, so that they would do no wrong, but find the evidence of his righteousness.

v. 30. Is there iniquity in my tongue? Had he actually, thus far in his complaint, spoken wrong? Cannot my taste discern perverse things? Was his palate, figuratively speaking, in such a poor condition that they believed him to have lost all consciousness of guilt, or that he could no longer understand the meaning of his misfortunes? True friends are a blessing, but false friends destroy a person’s faith in humanity.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To the person who is about to faint, faithfulness should be shown by his friend

This can be stated in active form. AT: "A friend should be faithful to the person who feels he is about to faint" (See: Active or Passive)

who is about to faint

This speaks of a person who feels hopeless and is overwhelmed by his troubles as if he were about to physically faint. AT: "who feels hopeless" (See: Metaphor)

even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty

"even if he stops fearing Almighty God." Possible meanings are 1) the faint person does not fear God or 2) his friend does not fear God.

But my brothers have been as faithful to me as a desert streambed

Job speaks of his friends being unfaithful to him as being like a "wadi" which is a stream that can suddenly dry up. Also, Job refers to his friends ironically here as his "brothers." AT: "But my friends are unfaithful to me. They are like a desert streambed" (See: Simile and Irony)

as channels of water that pass away to nothing

"like streams of water that dry up." Job continues speaking of his friends being unfaithful as if they were streams that dry up. (See: Simile)

which are darkened because of ice over them ... and because of the snow that hides itself in them

These two phrases have the same meaning. They describe how the streambed is full of ice and snow in the winter. AT: "which look dark in the winter because they are covered with ice and are full of melted snow" (See: Parallelism and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

because of the snow that hides itself in them

This speaks of the snow melting and the water going into the streambed as if the snow were hiding in the streambed. AT: "because the snow melts and goes into them" (See: Personification)

When they thaw out, they vanish ... when it is hot, they melt out of their place

These two phrases have the same meaning. They describe how the streambed dries up in the hot season. AT: "When it is hot, the ice melts and the streambeds dry up" (See: Parallelism and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

translationWords

faithful

forsake

fear

Almighty

brother

desert

water

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

By one who withholds kindness from his friend Heb. למס, by one who withholds kindness. The “lammed” is a prefix, as in (Num. 26:54), “to the numerous one (לָרַב)”; “to the one who returns (?) (לָשָב),” and (Isa. 28:10, 13) “for a precept (לצו).” מָס too is an expression of a verb, like בָּא, comes: שָב, returns; גָר, dwells; these also are an expression of doing [i.e., the present tense]:

who withholds kindness, who destroys it, like (Exod. 16:21), “when the sun grew hot, it melted (ונמס).”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.