Job charges his friends, in the person of Eliphaz, that they haven’t acted as true friends at all, because they accuse him rather than comfort him. They blame him instead of extending their pity. A true friend, Job continues: “…should treat a troubled person kindly, even if he abandons the fear of the Almighty” (Job 6:14). Forsaking the fear of God, was an accusation against Job put forth by Eliphaz (cp. Job 4:6). Therefore, Job may be referring to it, not that he had forsaken the fear of God, but, even if he had, his friends should not have withheld their pity and compassion for him. On the other hand, the phrase could be taken to mean lest he forsakes the fear of the Almighty… compassion and pity should be offered a friend. Yet, Eliphaz’s advice is filled with rebukes rather than words of comfort.
The fact is that Job accuses his friends of deceit. They come as friends in a guise of compassion and pity, but they act as a wadi. Here, Job uses a kind of play on words. The word afflicted in verse-14 is mas (H4523) in the Hebrew. It is a derivative of the Hebrew word: masas (H4549), which has the meaning “to melt, vanish, drop off, melt away” (see BDB Hebrew Definitions). The wadi is a stream or brook that is fed by melting snow and ice from off the mountains. However, after the snow and ice are gone in the summer, the wadi dries up. It had often been a great disappointment for travelers, who had hoped for the refreshment of water, but their hopes vanished in the sight of the dry waterbed (Job 6:15-20). Similarly, the sight of Job’s friends offered him at least the hope of comfort in his great affliction, but even they afflicted him. Thus, banishing Job’s hope for comfort in the wake of their rebukes and accusations.
Job concludes by saying their presence, as the wadi, promised much refreshment, but just as the wadi dried up in the heat of summer, so did they, and they offered nothing in their presence but false hope. Indeed, they had come to comfort their friend, but when they saw him (cp. Job 2:12), they were utterly astonished and grew afraid for their own sakes, wondering in themselves what price friendship might require of them (Job 6:21). Their own fear of what God might do to them was drying up the bowels of their compassion for their friend.
Nevertheless, Job asked them: did he ask for a gift or a loan (Job 6:22)? No! he did not. All he expected or desired was their pity and words of comfort. Did he desire that they take revenge upon his enemies for him? No! he did not, but they feared he would, according to Job’s estimation of their response toward his condition (Job 6:23). Finally, did Job ask for them to somehow redeem him from the hand of the Almighty (Job 6:23; cp 13:7)? No! he did not. Rather, Job accepted his lot (Job 1:20-21; 2:10), and refused to accuse God of wrongdoing over the circumstances that had befallen him. The fact that he wished for death and had given up all hope of recovery, or that he believed he was at least apparently overburdened with suffering at the hand of God than what seemed just, didn’t change the fact that he accepted his lot at the hand of the Lord. The matter is indeed complicated, but while it is one thing to admit one’s ignorance for the reason God acts as he does, it is quite another to rebel against the will of God and accuse him of wrongdoing, which is something that Job, simply, did not do (Job 1:22).
Smoodock's Blog 