Job 6 and Book of Job

While Job 3 was Job's general cry of anguish and desire for obliteration, Job 6-7 represents a more focused complaint against the friends and God. For the first time Job actually blames God for his suffering (6:4); for the first time he verbally attacks his friends (6:14-30); and for the first time he addresses God directly (7:11-21). These features add a tone of growing intensity to the book and account for a distinct change in tone when the next friend, Bildad, speaks (Job 8).

6:1-13. This section continues the tone of Job 3 and partially responds to Eliphaz. Job begins to speak in pictures; the "arrows of the Almighty" have penetrated him; he wants God to "crush" him or "cut him off." The wild ass does not bray at being forced to eat grass but Job refuses to touch food that is flavorless. To Eliphaz's bold prediction that Job shall live to happy old age (5:26), Job simply says, "What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient (6:11)?" For the first time Job seems to realize that he is in his situation for the long haul, but that he has no resources to deal with his pain (6:13). His final words of the section ring in our ears, "I have no help in me" and "any resource is driven from me." The last verb is best translated "thrust." Job's resources don't just fade from him; they have been violently pushed away.

6:14-30. In this condition, Job verbally attacks his friends. One might wonder, 'who is doing the "thrusting" or "driving away?'" It is far too easy to say that the friends "abandon" Job. Job seems to make an immediate, and potentially rash, judgment that the friends lack understanding; thus he rages against them as "treacherous" (6:15)--like the seasonal wadis in desert lands vainly sought by parched travelers. The friends turn their back on him and Job pleads, "But now, be pleased to look at me; for I will not lie to your face (6:28)." The metaphor of turning will then take on a life of its own in the rest of the book, as Job later will accuse God of turning from him as well. It raises the larger question if "turning" (i.e., change) is truly possible in life.

7:1-10. Job's concept of time becomes scrambled. In his "hard service" on earth (7:1), he lies down without sleeping ("but the night is long"--7:4) while his days "are swifter than a weaver's shuttle (7:6)." His life has a vaporous quality to it; as the cloud disappates, so does his existence (7:7-10).

7:7-11. In this situation Job does something that makes him forever reknowned. He decides not to restrain himself. "I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul (7:11)." The focus of his complaint will be God. In language that has to be memorized and internalized to catch the nuances, Job alternatively taunts God, fears God, reverses Scriptural meaning, despairs and asks God to leave him alone. In a word, God has become an oppressive presence for Job. Some Christians take comfort in the thought that "God is nearer than breathing, closer than hands and feet." Job turns that idea upside down by upbraiding God, "Will you not look away from me for a while, let me alone until I swallow my spittle? (7:19)." His anger at God is mirrored in his attitude toward life: "I loathe my life (7:16)" and, with words which we later will learn are premature, "my eye will never again see good (7:7)."

Bildad, the next one to speak, will likewise intensify rhetoric. We have gone past the point of no return.

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