Job 6:4

Eliphaz had reproached Job for giving way to despair. Job asks him only to weigh his misery. It would be as heavy as the sand of the sea — an image used elsewhere for great numbers. This is why his words are "rash," which is probably the better rendering. Who can hold back wild words when the arrows of the Almighty pierce him and His terrors hang over him?

Scripture uses the poison of serpents and of asps as a symbol of the judgement of God, and of the malice found in the wicked... Job 6:4 apparently alludes to arrows being poisoned.

Shaddai, "the Almighty," is another name of God. It is often translated that way, especially in Job, with no other name attached... It was the name by which He was especially known to the patriarchs, as El Shaddai, God Almighty.

Job's piety made him acknowledge that God not only must be, but was, involved in all these calamities. He was right so far. Job did not blame the Sabeans or the Chaldeans, the lightning, the hurricane, or the disease. He looked far beyond these secondary causes. He was right to bring God into the trouble. But he was wrong, as we shall find at the end. He supposed either that there was nothing to correct in his soul, or that God could be something other than gracious while faithful, and long-suffering while righteous.

Here we have the part of his suffering that was probably sharper than the physical pain. What gave his grief its edge was the sense that God's wrath was upon him, and that the dreadful poison of His anger was consuming him. We know this was a mistake. God was chastening His poor servant in this way, and that was only another proof of His love. But he did not know it, and we should not be harsh with one who felt that the Lord was dealing bitterly with him... Dreadful doubts about God's love and goodness have begun to gnaw at his heart. That pain goes beyond the loss of his loved ones and his sores.

Job was stirred to reply. He begins by acknowledging that the arrows that had struck him came from the Almighty. But these friends of his had no proper sense of the weight of his calamity and grief.

Satan used this wrong handling of truth in the speeches of Job's friends. Job 6 shows that this gave Job a terrible shaking... This was a great mistake. They were the arrows of Satan. God was not against Job. If Job had but known it, God was for him.

One only, and He for no sin of His own, has felt the arrows of God piercing His holy soul. "Why have you forsaken me?" He asks. But not for one moment does He doubt the holiness or the goodness of God. "You are holy" is enough for Him, and in meekness He drinks the bitter cup; perfect in His sufferings, as in all else. God could not for a moment lay the iniquity of mankind on poor Job — though there was not another like him on earth.