Job 6:7

Job 6:7 The things [that] my soul refused to touch [are] as my sorrowful meat.

Ver. 7. The things that my soul refused to touch, &c.] I suffer such torments even in my very soul, as the very thought of them would heretofore have frightened me. Thus Mr Diodati. Others take soul here for the appetite, and so make this the sense: Those things which I exceedingly loathed, and would once have thought scorn to have touched, are now my sorrowful meat; I am forced with a heavy heart to feed upon them for want of better; and they go down the worse because you vex me with your hard words (who have little need of such choke pears), and will not allow me the liberty of a needful lamentation, which yet I must needs take (lest heart should break), and say, as before, Job 3:1-26, though with some more respect to God, the object of my present prayer:

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 6:7. The things that my soul refused, &c. — “Job, persisting in his allegory,” says Schultens, “goes on to show how disagreeable to his stomach the speech of Eliphaz had been.” This learned critic accordingly translates the verse thus: My soul refuseth to touch such things; they are to me as corrupted food. But Dr. Dodd, after quoting these words of Schultens, observes, he “cannot help thinking that this and the two preceding verses will bear another interpretation, and that Job means, in them, to offer a justification for himself; to declare that he had sufficient ground for complaint, without which it was no more usual for man to lament than for the ox or ass to low or bray, when they had sufficient food, &c.” The sense of the verse seems to be, Those grievous afflictions, which I dreaded the very thought of, are now my daily, though sorrowful, bread.

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

To "touch" is contrasted with "meat." "My taste refused even to touch it, and yet am I fed with such meat of sickness." The second clause literally, is, "Such is like the sickness of my food." The natural taste abhors even to touch insipid food, and such forms my nourishment. For my sickness is like such nauseous food [UMBREIT]. (Psa 42:3; Psa 80:5; Psa 102:9). No wonder, then, I complain.

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

7. This verse may be rendered not quite literally,

My soul refuseth to touch them!

Such things are like loathsome food to me.

Literally, like my corrupted, or, diseased food. Job does not name his afflictions but refers to them indirectly as “they” and “such things.” He compared his sufferings to food in ch. Job_3:24.

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.

And that I might have my request,.... Or that it "might come" (m); that it might go up to heaven, enter there, and come into the ears of the Lord, be attended to, admitted, and received by him, see Psa 18:6; or come to Job, be returned into his bosom, be answered and fulfilled; the same with the desire that "cometh", which is, when the thing desired is enjoyed, Pro 13:12; or that what he had requested would come, namely, death, which is sometimes represented as a person that looks in at the windows, and comes into the houses of men, and seizes on them, Jer 9:21; and this is what Job wishes for; this was his sole request; this was the thing, the one thing, that lay uppermost in his mind, and he was most importunately solicitous for:

and that God would grant me the thing that I long for! death, as the following words explain it; this is not desirable by nature, but contrary to it; it is itself a penal evil, the sanction and curse of the law; it is an enemy, and a very formidable one, the king of terrors; and, though a very formidable, one, is desired by good men from a principle of grace, and with right views, to be rid of sin, and to be with Christ; yet it often is done by persons in melancholy, sullen, and humorous fits, when they cannot have what they would, as in Rachel, Elijah, and Jonah, Gen 30:1; and because of sore troubles and afflictions, which was the present case of Job; though it must be said that it was not, as is frequently the case with wicked men, through the horrors of a guilty conscience, which he was free of; and he had faith, and hope of comfort in another world, and in some degree he submitted to the will and pleasure of God; though pressed with too much eagerness, importunity, and passion: and it may be observed, that Job did not make request to men, to his servants, or friends about him, to dispatch him, as Abimelech and Saul did; nor did he lay hands on himself, or attempt to do it, as Saul, Ahithophel, and Judas: the wretched philosophy of the stoics was not known in Job's time, which not only makes suicide lawful, but commends it as an heroic action; no, Job makes his, request to the God of his life, who had given it to him, and had maintained it hitherto, and who only had a right to dispose of it; he asks it as a favour, he desires it as a gift, he had nothing else to ask, nothing was more or so desirable to him as death.

(m) "ut veniat", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Schmidt, Michaelis; "utinam veniret", Schultens.

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

The things that my soul refused to touch - That I refused to touch - the word “soul” here being used to denote himself. The idea here is, that those things which formerly were objects of loathing to him, had become his painful and distressing food. The idea may be either that he was reduced to the greatest pain and distress in partaking of his food, since he loathed that which he was obliged to eat (compare notes, Job 3:24), or more probably his calamity is described under the image of loathsome food in accordance with the Oriental usage, by which one is said to eat or taste anything; that is, to experience it. His sorrows were as sickening to him as the articles of food which he had mentioned were to the stomach. The Septuagint renders it strangely, “For my wrath - μοῦ ἡ ὀργή mou hē orgē - cannot cease. For I see my food offensive as the smell of a lion’ - ὥσπερ ὀσμὴν λέοντος hōsper osmēn leontos.

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

Heb. As the sicknesses or sorrows of my meat, i.e. as my sorrowful meat, which I am constrained to eat with grief of heart. The particle as, either,

1. Notes not the similitude, but the truth of the thing, as it is oft used, as hath been formerly noted and proved. So the sense is, that such meat as formerly he should have abhorred to touch, either for the quality of it, or for his tears or ulcerous matter which mixed themselves with it, he was now forced by the necessities of nature, and his own poverty, to eat. Or,

2. Implies that the following words are not to be understood properly, but metaphorically. And so the sense may be this, Those grievous afflictions, which according to the principles and common inclinations of human nature I dreaded the very touch and thought of, they are now my daily, though sorrowful, bread; I am forced constantly to feed upon them; as other persons in great afflictions are said to be fed with bread of tears, Psa 80:5, and to eat ashes like bread, Psa 102:9. Others make this a censure of Eliphaz’s words, as ungrateful and loathsome to him. But that sense seems neither to agree with the words of this verse, nor with its scope and coherence with the former, of which See Poole "Job 6:6".

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

7. The things that my soul refused — The verse reads literally, My soul refuses to touch! They are as tainted food to me. Thus most of the recent commentators. Hitzig, however, renders דוי, crumbs; which, in connexion with “my food,” to say the least, makes very poor sense. Job’s soul recoils from, absolutely loathes, the sorrows of which he speaks in the fourth verse, and again, under a figure, in the sixth. They are to him “like putridity in his food.” — Furst.

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

The things that my soul refuse to touch are as my sorrowful meat; rather, as in the Revised Version, my soul refuseth to touch them; they are as loathsome meat to me. The doubt remains whether Job is speaking of the arguments of Eliphaz, or of the series of afflictions which have befallen him. Either explanation is possible.

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

The things, &c. - The sense may be, those grievous afflictions, which I dreaded the very thought of, are now my daily, though sorrowful bread.

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

General Information:

Job continues to use parallelisms in these verses as he speaks about his sufferings and his desire for death. (See: Parallelism)

I refuse to touch them

"Them" refers to bad tasting foods.

to crush me once

This means for God to cause him to die. AT: "to crush me and let me die" (See: Euphemism)

that he would let loose his hand and cut me off from this life

The phrases "let loose his hand" is an idiom that means to act quickly. Also, the phrase "cut me off from this life" is a euphemism for killing him. AT: "that he would act quickly and cut short my life" or "that he would act quickly and end my life" (See: Idiom and Euphemism)

translationWords

God

cut off

life

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

What my body refused to touch That is to say, I have reason to cry increasingly, because things that my body refused [to touch] and was disgusted to touch... [לנגוֹע] is an expression of touching.

as cloths for my food Now they are prepared for me to touch them like my tablecloths upon which my food is placed. כִּדְוֵי is an expression like (II Sam. 10:4), “and he cut off their garments (מדויהם).” I heard this from Rabbi Meshullam the physician. Another interpretation: Like cloths with which they strain the cooked foods and the food runs out of them. דְוֵי is an expression of דָוֶה, running.

my food Heb. לחמי, lit. my bread. All food is called לחם, as in (Dan. 5:1), “made a great feast (לחם).” and as in (Jer. 11:19), “Let us destroy his food (בלחמו) with wood.” which Jonathan renders: poison into his food. Another explanation: They are as the sights of my food. That is to say: I am accustomed to looking at them, at the worms, as I look at my food. This is Mishnaic Hebrew: “and they walk when they look (דוי)” in Tractate Shabbath (53b).

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.