Job 6:14–6:21, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Job 6:14–6:21
Job Compares Failed Friendship to Seasonal Streams
Job says an afflicted person needs loyal kindness, then compares his friends to torrents that vanish when travelers most need water.
Job 6:14–6:21 opens with “To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of…” and closes with “For now ye are nothing; ye see my casting down, and are afraid.” Those endpoints show how Job carries this movement.
How the passage moves
Identify Job's stated claim in Job 6:14–6:21.
Keep this interpretive control visible: Job's accusation targets unreliable comfort; it does not authorize abandoning every imperfect friend, while the friends' fear does not excuse their failure to see him.
Reading Job 6:14–6:21 with its speaker and the whole book rules out these uses:
“Job Compares Failed Friendship to Seasonal Streams” does not make the literary contribution from Job an exhaustive explanation of suffering.
How this should shape us
What proportionate response follows?
Make room for the speech and emotion preserved in Job 6:14–6:21; listen before explaining, do not coerce closure or silence protest, and pair companionship with the practical care the situation requires. Preserve this unit-specific boundary in the action: Job's accusation targets unreliable comfort; it does not authorize abandoning every imperfect friend, while the friends' fear does not excuse their failure to see him.
Teach it back
Explain Job 6:14–6:21 in your own words. Name the speaker, the unit's place in Job, one source-controlled textual or literary observation, one uncertainty, and one harmful use the passage does not authorize.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Speaker and stated movement
Job carries this unit. Job says an afflicted person needs loyal kindness, then compares his friends to torrents that vanish when travelers most need water.
Literary role in Job
Job continues from Job 6:8–6:13: Job wishes God would end his life, treats faithfulness to divine words as his remaining comfort, and denies having strength or resources to prolong hope. Job 6:14–6:21 now develops the next distinct movement: Job says an afflicted person needs loyal kindness, then compares his friends to torrents that vanish when travelers most need water.
Uncertainty and interpretive limit
Job's accusation targets unreliable comfort; it does not authorize abandoning every imperfect friend, while the friends' fear does not excuse their failure to see him.
What the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Wisdom setting, speaker, and recoverable limits
Job 6:14–6:21 belongs to an ancient Hebrew wisdom dialogue framed by a story set in Uz. Job speaks or governs this movement. The author is unnamed, the location and date are uncertain, and the prose, poetry, wisdom poem, Elihu section, and ending have disputed compositional relationships.
How certain? probableEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
Job within Jewish Scripture and wisdom
Job 6:14–6:21 belongs first to Job's place among the Writings and the wider biblical traditions of wisdom, lament, creation, justice, mortality, and protest. Later Jewish interpretation is part of reception, not a replacement for the unit's own speaker and flow.
How certain? probableHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Canonical relationships after the first horizon
Psalms of lament, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, Genesis creation language, Ezekiel's remembered Job, and James's later reference to Job may clarify reception only after Job 6:14–6:21's own voice and uncertainty are established. The later canon cannot make the friends narrator-approved.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
Within Job 6:14–6:21, integrity, lament, justice, wisdom, divine freedom, creaturely limits, truthful speech, and compassionate presence must be weighted according to Job's role rather than flattened into one voice.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
Job says an afflicted person needs loyal kindness, then compares his friends to torrents that vanish when travelers most need water.
How certain? strongCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
“Job Compares Failed Friendship to Seasonal Streams” does not make the literary contribution from Job an exhaustive explanation of suffering.
A vivid sentence in Job 6:14–6:21 can be detached from Job, the prose-versus-poetry distinction, surrounding speeches, and God's final verdict.
Job says an afflicted person needs loyal kindness, then compares his friends to torrents that vanish when travelers most need water. As a literary contribution from Job, it must be evaluated with the prose frame, surrounding speech, and final verdict rather than flattened into an anonymous maxim.
Job says an afflicted person needs loyal kindness, then compares his friends to torrents that vanish when travelers most need water. Honest lament, grief, protest, and need can remain inside sustained relationship without being silenced by a demand for quick explanations.
Job says an afflicted person needs loyal kindness, then compares his friends to torrents that vanish when travelers most need water.
This unit does not authorize this rejected reading: Job's accusation targets unreliable comfort; it does not authorize abandoning every imperfect friend, while the friends' fear does not excuse their failure to see him.
A vivid sentence in Job 6:14–6:21 can be detached from Job, the prose-versus-poetry distinction, surrounding speeches, and God's final verdict.
Job says an afflicted person needs loyal kindness, then compares his friends to torrents that vanish when travelers most need water. As a literary contribution from Job, it must be evaluated with the prose frame, surrounding speech, and final verdict rather than flattened into an anonymous maxim.
Job says an afflicted person needs loyal kindness, then compares his friends to torrents that vanish when travelers most need water. Honest lament, grief, protest, and need can remain inside sustained relationship without being silenced by a demand for quick explanations.
Job says an afflicted person needs loyal kindness, then compares his friends to torrents that vanish when travelers most need water.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Job 6:14–6:21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 6:14–6:21
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 6:14–6:21.
Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 6:14–6:21
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Enter the Bible Job course, Outline and passage studies: lament and first dialogue cycle; applied to Job 6:14–6:21
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 6:14–6:21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 6:14–6:21
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 6:14–6:21.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 6:14–6:21
Open the official NET Job PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Job course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Daniel J. Simundson and Kathryn Schifferdecker
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current online edition inspected 2026
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Job course, Outline and passage studies: lament and first dialogue cycle; applied to Job 6:14–6:21
Open the Enter the Bible Job course ↗