The caravans turn aside from their course; they go up into the waste and perish.
Job is answering his friend Eliphaz with a picture every desert traveller knew: a stream that runs full in winter and is gone by summer. Verse 18 follows the travellers who counted on that water and found none, and it asks what a friend is for when the heat comes.
The picture behind the verse
Job's picture turns on the gap between the promise of water and actual water.
Leslie M. GrantJob says, "My brothers have dealt deceitfully like a brook, like the streams of the brook that pass away." In winter these streams are swollen by snow and ice. They promise blessing and refreshment, but they soon dry up and leave nothing behind. Travellers may come expecting water, only to find nothing, and it leaves them confused.
Who turns aside
Who turns aside? The verse names the caravans — the travelling companies of the desert. One writer allows another reading.
William KellyPossibly it may mean the streams, not caravans, that wind about.
Either way, the line ends in the same place. The road runs up into the waste, and the travellers perish there.
Failure at the point of need
The sting is in the timing. Water in winter is no use; the thirst comes in the heat. Job weighs his friends by that moment, and by how little he had asked of them.
Samuel RidoutThe hard principle they were applying knew no mercy, felt no sympathy. At the time of his dire need they showed themselves completely unfit to be friends. They are not the "brother born for adversity." These "brothers" are like a summer stream, swollen by melting snow and ice in winter. It promises a steady supply for the thirsty. But when the troops 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 an enemy, only a little sympathy.
Why sincere friends ran dry
The friends were not liars. What ran dry in them was what they knew about God.
J. N. DarbyAnd what had his friends done for him during the sifting he was passing through? Well might he say, "Miserable comforters are you all." They had no true grasp of God's character, and so were unable to understand His dealings with a soul. They had no proper sense of sin, and therefore did not know that if God would deal in blessing with man, it must be entirely on the ground of grace. They did not know how to meet his case. They had said many true things, but not one single right thing that fitted Job, because they did not understand him.
Where the dry riverbed leads
A brook that fails sends the thirsty man looking elsewhere. That is what these friends did for Job.
The Bible TreasuryPurely human efforts to comfort, apart from God and the truth, fail, because they are more or less ignorant. The more bitter the trial, the more obvious the failure. Job's history shows this. His three friends were clearly sincere in their care for the sufferer. They were eager to serve him in the hour of his sorrow. But the cause of Job's suffering completely baffled them… They did not understand the ways of God with His own at all. So their false and unworthy suggestions made Job feel how unable they were to help him, and threw him back on God Himself.
The lesson for the reader
Job leaned on friends who could not hold him up. Paul was left alone too, and one writer sets the two side by side.
Samuel RidoutHow differently Paul speaks: "At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me… But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me" (2 Tim. 4:16-17). Let us learn from Job's failure not to put the dearest earthly friend between us and God.
Summary
- Promise — The winter brook looked full. That is why its emptiness hurt. A supply that cannot survive the heat was never a supply.
- Search — The travellers leave their road for water and find waste ground. Commentators differ on whether the verse pictures the caravans turning aside or the streams winding away.
- Timing — The friends failed at the hour of need. Job had asked nothing costly of them — no money, no rescue, only sympathy.
- Cause — They ran dry because they did not grasp God's character or His ways with a soul. They said many true things and not one right thing for Job.
- Result — Their inability threw him back on God Himself. The dry riverbed teaches us not to place even the dearest friend between ourselves and God.