to be ashy · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
ice
קָ֑רַחKa.rach
H7140
ice (as if bald · noun, common masculine singular absolute
snow
שָֽׁלֶגSha.leg
H7950
snow (probably from its whiteness) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
hid
יִתְעַלֶּםyit.'a.lem-
H5956
to veil from sight · verb, hithpael imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 6:14-21
Eliphaz had been very severe in his censures of Job; and his companions, though as yet they had said little, yet had intimated their concurrence with him. Their unkindness therein poor Job here complains of, as an aggravation of his calamity and a further excuse of his desire to die; for what satisfaction could he ever expect in this world when those that should have been his comforters thus proved his tormentors?
I. He shows what reason he had to expect kindness from them. His expectation was grounded upon the common principles of humanity (Job 6:14): "To him that is afflicted, and that is wasting and melting under his affliction, pity should be shown from his friend; and he that does not s…
blackish--literally, "Go as a mourner in black clothing" (Psa 34:14). A vivid and poetic image to picture the stream turbid and black with melted ice and snow, descending from the mountains into the valley. In the [second] clause, the snow dissolved is, in the poet's view, "hid" in the flood [UMBREIT].
John Gill on Job 6:16
Which are blackish by reason of the ice,.... When frozen over, they look of a blackish colour, and is what is called a black frost; and these either describe Job and his domestics, as some (h) think whom Eliphaz and his two friends compared to the above streams water passed away from, or passed by and neglected, and showed no friendship to; who were in black, mournful and rueful circumstances, through the severe hand of God upon them. The word is rendered, "those which mourn", Job 5:11; or rather the friends of Job compared to foul and troubled waters frozen over which cannot be so well discerned, or which were black through being frozen, and which describes the inward frame of their minds t…
14 To him who is consumed gentleness is due from his friend,
Otherwise he might forsake the fear of the Almighty.
15 My brothers are become false as a torrent,
As the bed of torrents which vanish away -
16 They were blackish from ice,
Snow is hidden in them -
17 In the time, when warmth cometh to them, they are destroyed.
It becometh hot, they are extinguished from their place.
Ewald supplies between Job 6:14 and Job 6:14 two lines which have professedly fallen out ("from a brother sympathy is due to the oppressed of God, in order he may not succumb to excessive grief"). Hitzig strongly characterizes this interpolation as a "pure swindle." There is really nothing wanting; but we need not e…
The Church Fathers
"My relatives refused to see me. I horrified the angels. "Like the torrent that flows. I was as inundated with mercy; everything has dried up, and there is no source to quench my thirst. "They passed before me like the waves. So consolations were for him like a drink. "Those who feared me came to melt on me. A The demon with his angels. "It is made of me, I am exiled from my own house; He wants to speak of the eternal abode or his own conscience: that is why he was sitting in front. his door ,.
JOB MEANS TO SAY THIS: there is no memory or trace left of my former prosperity. And that is even worse than my misfortune itself. "Oh, that one would indeed weigh the wrath that is upon me and take up my sorrow in a balance together!" And Job now tries to describe his sorrows. "I perceive my food to be loathsome [as the smell of a lion]." I wish to die, but I do not die. I suffer so because I am a man and not a stone; I am an ephemeral human being, I do not enjoy the aid from above. Among my nearest relations, some pass me by without seeing me; others trample me underfoot. No trace of my former prosperity remains.
Over those that fear the frost, the snow rushes down. For the frost congeals below, but the snow falls down from above. And often there are persons, who, while they fear temporal adversities, expose themselves to the severity of everlasting visitation. Concerning whom it is rightly declared by the Psalmist, There were they in great fear where no fear was. For this man already longs to defend the truth with freedom, yet being affrighted in that very longing that he feels, he shrinks from the indignation of a human power, and while on earth he fears man in opposition to the truth, he undergoes from heaven the wrath of Truth. That man, conscious of his sins, is already desirous to bestow upon the needy the things which he is possessed of, yet dreads lest he himself come to need them so bestowed. When, being alarmed, he provides with reservation for his own use succours of the flesh for the future, he starves the soul from the sustenance of mercy, and when he fears want on earth, he cuts off from himself the eternal plenitude of the heavenly cheer. Therefore it is well said, Over those that fear the frost, the snow rushes down. In that all who apprehend from below what ought to be trodden under the feet, undergo from above what is deserving of apprehension, and when they will not pass by what they might have trodden beneath them, they meet with a judgment from heaven which they can in no sort sustain. Now by acting thus they attain the glory of the world in time, but what will they do in the hour of their call, when terror-stricken they quit at once all the things which they kept here with grievous apprehensions?
Dictionary and topics
Colour — The subject of colours holds an important place in the Scriptures. White occurs as the translation of various Hebrew words. It is applied to milk (Gen. 49:12), manna (Ex. 16:31), snow (Isa. 1:18),…
Frost — (Heb. kerah, from its smoothness) Job 37:10 (R.V., “ice”); Gen. 31:40; Jer. 36:30; rendered “ice” in Job 6:16, 38:29; and “crystal” in Ezek. 1:22. “At the present day frost is entirely unknown in the…
Ice — Frequently mentioned (Job 6:16; 38:29; Ps. 147:17, etc.). (See CRYSTAL.)
Ice · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Snow · In Uz — In Uz
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Job and his friends might have been bound by a covenant of loyalty and faithfulness (Hebrew khesed; see Gen 21:23; Exod 15:13; 1 Chr 16:34) that made them like brothers (Job 6:14-15), protectors (6:21-23), and trusted friends (6:27). If this was the case, Job was accusing his friends of violating their covenant with him.
Rashi on Job 6:16
which wrinkle from the ice if ice comes upon them, they wrinkle and become like boards (Shem Ephraim),
and upon them the snow disappears—it is covered, for it falls with the ice. This is one betrayal, for it [the stream] is hidden from the eye, and a thirsty man does not find water to drink.
