My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.
Job has already lost his property, his health, and the sympathy of his friends. Now the loss reaches inside his own home, where his wife cannot bear to be near him and his own family turns away.
What the Words Describe
One writer takes the complaint literally. He also answers a question the wording raises: Job's sons and daughters had already died, so who are these children?
Leslie M. GrantHis breath was offensive to his wife, which was no doubt literally true. His wife was evidently no help to him in his sufferings (vv. 16-17). He also says, "I am repulsive to the children of my own body. Even young children despise me." Of course he was not speaking of his sons and daughters, who had already been taken in death, so it is likely his grandchildren he speaks of. We can understand what children would feel on seeing him sitting in an ash heap covered with sore boils, yet Job felt them recoiling from him, in contrast to their former respect for him.
The wording quoted here, "the children of my own body," comes from an older translation. The ESV reads "the children of my own mother" — that is, Job's brothers. Either way, his own blood relatives pull back from him.
Desertion That Moves Inward
Job lists his losses in order, and the circle tightens as he goes: relatives, then houseguests, then servants, then his wife. He was still reaching out to them as they pulled away.
William KellyHis brothers were put far from him. His acquaintances turned cold. His relatives failed him, and his close friends forgot him. The guests in his house and his maid counted him a stranger, an alien. He called his servant in vain, though he begged him humbly. He was an object of disgust to his wife, even while he was yearning after those nearest to him.
Another writer puts the wife's disgust at the very worst of it:
Samuel RidoutWorst of all, his own wife recoils from the foul smell of his body. Boys mock him, friends hate him. It is a dreadful picture of a horrible disease, and sad beyond words when we remember that he could not turn to God for comfort.
Who Job Blames
Job traces every one of these desertions back to God. Commentators differ on whether he was right. One notes that Job himself, not his friends, names God as the source:
William KellyDid they say that God was against Job? "God has overthrown me," he acknowledges. If it was any comfort to them to know it, he confesses that his trouble came from His hand... It is Job himself, not his friends, who points to his complete desertion: his wife, his brothers, his servants, his household. Even youngsters treated him with contempt. Those who once respected him had all now abandoned him.
Another explains why the people around Job turned on him, and judges that Job blamed the wrong hand:
Leslie M. GrantPeople generally live by a legal principle, so it is understandable that they took the same attitude toward Job as his friends did. Job's brothers had removed themselves from him, and Job blamed God for this. His acquaintances, relatives and close friends had distanced themselves from him. Even those living in his own house, including maidservants, treated him as though he were a stranger, a foreigner not worth considering... Of course Job's guess was wrong. God did not move these people against him, though no doubt Satan did.
A Picture Of The World As It Is
Job's household is small. What happens inside it is what happens everywhere when trouble strikes.
J. G. BellettThere is a little reality, a little of the "friend in need" who "is a friend indeed," but there is a great deal of scorn and desertion in the hour of calamity, still so well known in the world. Job has three friends who sit with him among his ashes and broken pottery, but everyone else sees him only from a distance. Is not all this "the present evil world" drawn to the life?
Where The Emptiness Leads
With nothing left, Job begs his friends for pity. They answer with suspicion, and out of that moment comes his great statement of faith.
William KellyHow pitiable! He had come down very low to ask his dear friends to have pity. All they gave him was ugly suspicion, and it wounded him deeply... "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth." This is a most wonderful expression of faith.
Summary
- Literal. His wife's disgust is physical, not poetic. The disease has made Job's own breath hard for her to bear.
- Inward. The desertion moves inward — brothers, acquaintances, servants, wife. The closest tie fails last, and hurts most.
- Disputed. Job lays every desertion at God's door. Commentators differ: is this real faith, or a wrong guess about who was moving these people?
- Ordinary. What happens in Job's house still happens in the world. Trouble brings a little true friendship, and a great deal of scorn.
- Upward. Friends gave suspicion instead of pity. From that lowest point comes his confidence: his Redeemer lives, and He will stand on the earth at the last.