which are dark with ice, and where the snow hides itself.
Job is answering his friend Eliphaz, and he likens the friends who came to comfort him to a desert stream. This verse shows the stream in the cold season, dark with ice and hidden snow — but what is it worth to a thirsty traveller in summer?
The kind of stream Job means
The Hebrew word here is not the word for a steady river. It names a watercourse known for failing:
Morrish Bible Dictionarynachal, Gen. 32:23, and so on: a mountain torrent often dry in summer, and so often disappointing, as in Job 6:15. There are many such streams in Palestine. The New Testament calls the same thing cheimarros, "winter flowing" (John 18:1). Its Eastern name is wady.
One writer draws out why the season matters:
William KellyCrossing the desert in winter is a very different thing from crossing the same desert in summer. In winter people do not need the refreshment of water so much. In the heat of summer they feel the great need of even a drop of water to cool their tongue.
Ice and snow as a false promise
The ice and buried snow make the stream look full. That is the sting:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThey were like brooks that promised plenty of refreshing water in the winter, when it was not needed.
One writer follows the melt-water into the next verses:
Leslie M. GrantThe streams in winter, swollen by snow and ice, promise blessing and refreshment, but they soon dry up and leave nothing of blessing behind (vv.16-17). Travellers may come expecting water. They find nothing, and they are disappointed and confused. So Job expressed his own confusion at the words of Eliphaz (vv.19-20).
What Job was accusing them of
The charge is not that the friends stayed away. It is that they arrived full and ran dry. One writer sets the image beside the pity that friends owe a sufferer:
Samuel RidoutA basic principle says that a sufferer's friends should show him pity… But the hard principle they were applying knew no mercy and felt no sympathy. When his need was desperate, they showed themselves completely unfit to be friends. The "brother born for adversity" they are not. These "brothers" are like a summer stream, swollen by melting snow and ice in winter. It promises a never-failing supply for the thirsty. But when the crowds of travellers come, they find only the dry stones to mock them.
The problem was not silence but the quality of the words he did get:
William KellyThere was not one word of true pity. Every word was shallow, because of the bad judgment, the misjudgment, that lay underneath it.
Job asked for very little
And what he wanted from them was small:
Samuel RidoutYet he had asked nothing unreasonable from them — no money, no rescue from the enemy, only a little sympathy.
The warning for the reader
One writer turns Job's disappointment into a lesson:
Samuel RidoutLet us learn from Job's failure not to put the dearest earthly friend between us and God.
Another writer applies this to our own times of need, and adds what God does through it:
C. H. MackintoshWe make a most serious mistake when we turn to any created thing for help or sympathy in a time of need or pressure. We are sure to be disappointed. The streams that creatures offer are dry. Their props give way. Our God will make us prove the emptiness and folly of all trust in created things, all human hopes, and all earthly expectations. On the other hand, He will prove to us, in the most moving and powerful way, that His own Word is true and full of blessing: "Those who wait for Me shall not be put to shame."
Summary
- Wadi. The Hebrew word here means a mountain torrent that often runs dry in summer — a stream built to disappoint.
- Winter. Ice and hidden snow make the channel look full, but they supply water at the season when nobody is desperate for it.
- Heat. Thirsty travellers arrive and find dry stones. That is Job's verdict on the comfort his friends brought.
- Pity. Job asked for no money and no rescue, only sympathy. He got shallow words built on a wrong judgment of him.
- Fountain. Put no friend between your soul and God. Streams from created things run dry; God never fails those who wait for Him.