The caravans of Tema look, the travelers of Sheba hope.
Job is answering his friend Eliphaz. He reaches for a picture every desert traveller knew: caravans leaving the road to look for water. The caravans of Tema and Sheba stake their lives on a stream being where they remember it. Job says his friends are that stream.
The picture behind the verse
Job's complaint runs from verse 15 to verse 20 as one unbroken image. One rendering of the lines makes the ending sharp:
William KellyCaravans turn aside out of their way, they go up into the wasteland and vanish. The caravans of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba hoped for them; they were put to shame because they had trusted; they came to the spot and turned red with shame.
Their shame came from the trust itself, not from the weather.
Commentators differ on one detail of verse 18. The same writer notes an alternative reading of who turns aside:
William KellyPossibly it may mean the streams, not caravans, that wind about.
Why the desert stream cuts so deep
The force of the image depends on the season. A wadi is full when nobody needs it and empty when everyone does:
William KellyThey were of no use to him at all. He compares this to the desert, which he knew well, as they all did. Crossing the desert in winter is one thing. Crossing the same desert in summer is another. 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. Then the brooks that cross the desert for a time are completely soaked up by the sand or dried out by the power of the sun. … So the same company from Tema, or from Sheba, passing through the desert might remember that this is where we should find water in the middle of all this trouble: "We hope we are nearing it now." Not a drop! Not a drop! That is what you are like. There was a time when I could have got comfort from you, but now everything has changed.
Eliphaz had fine words about God. Then the heat came, and the friend was not there.
Job as the thirsty traveller
The disappointed traveller in the picture is Job himself:
Leslie M. GrantTravellers may come expecting water, but they find nothing. They are disappointed and confused. In the same way Job expressed his own confusion at the words of Eliphaz.
What a sufferer has a right to expect
Job's friends broke a rule stated a few lines earlier. Kindness to a suffering person is not an extra. It can keep a crushed person from letting go of God:
Samuel RidoutIt is a basic principle that friends should show pity to a suffering man — otherwise, under the strain of trial, as some have rendered it, "he should forsake the fear of the Almighty." … When his need was at its worst, they showed themselves completely unfit to be friends. They are not the "brother born for adversity." These "brothers" are like a summer stream, swollen in winter by melting snow and ice. It promises a never-failing supply for the thirsty. But when the bands of travellers arrive, they find only 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 warning for the one who trusts
The image has a second edge, and it cuts toward Job. He had leaned his weight on people:
Samuel RidoutEliphaz might speak in lofty language of the greatness and faithfulness of God, but what about himself; was he acting the part of a true friend? … And when these friends failed him, he could not add, "You are with me." Paul speaks very differently: "At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me… But the Lord stood by me" (2 Tim. 4:16-17). Let us learn from Job's failure not to put the dearest earthly friend between us and God.
(Scripture quoted here in ESV; the writer used an older translation.)
Summary
- Looked — The caravans of Tema and Sheba leave the road because they expect water. Job turned to his friends the same way, expecting comfort.
- Trusted — The shame came from trusting, not from the dry riverbed. They had counted on that stream, and it was gone.
- Dry — Winter streams promise endless supply and vanish in the heat. Friends who speak well of God in easy times may offer only dry stones when the need is real.
- Owed — Pity toward a sufferer is a basic duty. It is owed even to someone others think has let go of the fear of God. Job asked for no money and no rescue — only sympathy.
- Learn — The failure teaches the sufferer as much as the friends. Never place even the dearest person between yourself and God. Everyone deserted Paul, but the Lord stood by him.