Matthew Henry on Job 6:22–end
Poor Job goes on here to upbraid his friends with their unkindness and the hard usage they gave him. He here appeals to themselves concerning several things which tended both to justify him and to condemn them. If they would but think impartially, and speak as they thought, they could not but own,
I. That, though he was necessitous, yet he was not craving, nor burdensome to his friends. Those that are so, whose troubles serve them to beg by, are commonly less pitied than the silent poor. Job would be glad to see his friends, but he did not say, Bring unto me (Job 6:22), or, Deliver me, Job 6:23. He did not desire to put them to any expense, did not urge his friends either, 1. To make a colle…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 6:23
the mighty--the oppressor, or creditor, in whose power the debtor was [UMBREIT].
John Gill on Job 6:23
Or, deliver me from the enemies' hand?.... Or, "out of the hand of straitness" (c); out of tribulation and difficulties with which he was pressed on every side:
or redeem me from the hand of the mighty? fetch back his cattle out of the hands of the Sabeans and Chaldeans, either by force of arms, as Abraham brought back Lot, and all his goods, when taken and carried away by the four king's, or by giving a ransom price for them. Job had asked no such favour of them; he had not troubled them with any such suits, and therefore they had no reason to use him in the manner they did, as he apprehended; it would be soon enough to flout and fling at him when he applied to them for any relief.
(c) "…
Read the whole note in the consoleKeil & Delitzsch on Job 6:21-23
21 For now ye are become nothing;
You see misfortune, and are affrighted.
22 Have I then said, Give unto me,
And give a present for me from your substance,
23 And deliver me from the enemy's hand,
And redeem me from the hand of the tyrant?
In Job 6:21, the reading wavers between לו and לא, with the Keri לו; but לו, which is consequently the lectio recepta, gives no suitable meaning, only in a slight degree appropriate, as this: ye are become it, i.e., such a mountain brook; for הייתם is not to be translated, with Stickel and others, estis, but facti estis. The Targum, however, translates after the Chethib: ye are become as though ye had never been, i.e., nothingness. Now, since לא, Aramaic ל…
