Job sheweth that his complaints are not causeless: he wisheth for death, wherein he is assured of comfort: he reproves his friends for their unkindness.
Before Christ 1645.
Job 6:1. But Job answered and said— Job begins his defence with a modest apology for venting his grief in a manner somewhat unbecoming, and begs that it may be ascribed to the great multitude and sharpness of his afflictions; Job 6:3-7. But as to the advice given him by Eliphaz, to hope for an amendment of his condition, and to address God for that purpose, he tells them that his petition to God should be of a quite different nature; namely, that he would be pleased to cut him off speedily, for that the desperateness of his condition would by no means permit him to hope for any amendment; Job 6:8-13. That he could not, however, help resenting their unkind suspicions of him, that they should think him capable of such great wickedness, but, above all, should imagine him to be so abandoned as to be able to entertain a thought tending to a revolt from the Almighty; which yet they must have done, or Eliphaz would never have dared to make him such a proposition; Job 6:14-20. He saw, therefore, what kind of friends he had to do with: as soon as they perceived him in a remediless condition, they began to treat him with contempt; Job 6:21-27. As to his recovery, however, he tells them that they may set their hearts at ease; for if they would but consider his condition a little more attentively, they might soon be convinced that there was not the least chance of any thing of that nature, as all hopes of life were at an end with him. He begs them, therefore, not to condemn him barely on suspicion, and on the strength of general maxims; but to consider that it was possible he might be innocent of their charges; Job 6:28-30. See Heath.