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 Proverbs 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 (Galatians 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, Ezekiel 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.

Job 6:21 Parallel Commentaries

ye are nothing. or, ye are like to them. Heb. to it.

Job 6:15 My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;

Job 13:4 But you are forgers of lies, you are all physicians of no value.

Psalm 62:9 Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance...

Isaiah 2:22 Cease you from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of ?

Jeremiah 17:5,6 Thus said the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD...

nothing. Heb. not. ye see.

Job 2:11-13 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come on him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite...

Psalm 38:11 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.

Proverbs 19:7 All the brothers of the poor do hate him: how much more do his friends go far from him? he pursues them with words...

Jeremiah 51:9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country...

Matthew 26:31,56 Then said Jesus to them, All you shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd...

2 Timothy 4:16 At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.

Revelation 18:9,10,17,18 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall mourn her, and lament for her...