My brothers are treacherous as a torrent-bed, as torrential streams that pass away,
Disaster and disease have stripped Job bare, and the three friends who came to comfort him now blame his own sin for it. In chapter 6 he turns from his pain to them, and compares them to a desert stream that dries up just when travellers need it.
The picture behind the word
The word translated "brook" or "torrent-bed" does not describe a steady river. It names a stream that depends on the season.
Morrish Bible Dictionarynachal, Gen. 32:23, etc., a mountain torrent often dry in summer, and so often disappointing, as in Job 6:15. There are many of these in Palestine. The same thing is called in the New Testament χείμαρρος, "winter flowing," John 18:1. Its Eastern name is wady.
Full in winter, gone in the heat
The cruelty of such a stream is in its timing. It makes a promise in winter and breaks it in the heat.
Samuel RidoutThese "brothers" are like a summer stream, swollen by melting snow and ice in winter. It promises an endless supply for the thirsty. But when the crowds of travellers come, they find only the dry stones to mock them. Yet he had asked nothing unreasonable from them — no money, no rescue from the enemy, only a little sympathy.
The friends who could not be a brother
Job does not call them enemies. He calls them brothers. The bond was real, but it gave him nothing in his need.
Samuel RidoutIt is a basic principle that pity should be shown to a sufferer by his friends... But the hard principle they were applying knew no mercy and felt no sympathy. At the time of his terrible need they showed themselves completely unfit to be friends. They are not the "brother born for adversity."
What wounded him
Job says the friends deceived him; they did not simply fail to help. One writer traces that deceit to what lay under their words.
William KellyThat they should be so lacking in pity — that is what galled him. Next to the great riddle of how God allowed all this to come upon him, that is what he could not explain. There was not one word of true pity. Every word was very superficial, because of the bad judgment, the misjudgment, that lay underneath it... They were of no use to him whatever.
The one thing he asked for
Job asked his friends for nothing material. That makes the one thing he did ask for stand out.
William KellyHe says, "It is not that I have the least need of anything, and yet you are treating me as if I wanted to draw on you in my trouble. No, I ask nothing of you except that you should not misjudge me."
Why sincere comforters still run dry
The three men meant well. Job's case was outside anything their thinking could explain.
The Bible TreasuryAll merely human efforts to comfort, apart from God and the truth, are ineffective because they are more or less ignorant. And the failure is all the more obvious the more bitter the trial to be faced. This is shown in the history of Job. His three friends were clearly sincere in their concern for the sufferer, and eager to serve him in the hour of his sorrow. But the cause of his affliction completely baffled them... They did not understand the ways of God with His own at all. By their false and unworthy suggestions they made Job feel how unable they were to help him — and they threw Job back on God Himself.
The lesson for the one left dry
Job's complaint is fair. One writer sets it beside Paul's experience and draws a lesson from it.
Samuel RidoutPaul sounds very different: "At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me... But the Lord stood by me" (2 Timothy 4:16-17). Let us learn from Job's failure not to put the dearest earthly friend between us and God. "Earthly friends may fail and leave us, One day soothe, the next day grieve us, But this Friend will never deceive us, Oh, how He loves!"
Summary
- The word. The "brook" is a wady — a mountain torrent that runs in winter and is dry in summer, and so is famous for disappointing.
- The promise. Swollen with melted snow, it promises the thirsty an endless supply. The promise is what makes its failure a deceit, not just a lack.
- The heat. Job's need tested the friends. They gave him not one word of true pity, because a misjudgment lay under all they said.
- The mockery. Travellers who turn aside for water find only dry stones. Job had asked for no money and no rescue — only sympathy.
- The spring. Human comfort apart from God fails because it is ignorant. Dry friends throw us back on God Himself — so keep no friend, however dear, between you and Him.