Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 6:7
The things [that] my soul refused to touch [are] as my sorrowful meat.
7. This verse may be rendered not quite literally,
My soul refuseth to touch them!
Such things are like loathsome food to me.
Literally, like my corrupted, or, diseased food. Job does not name his afflictions but refers to them indirectly as “they” and “such things.” He compared his sufferings to food in ch. Job 3:24.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The things that my soul refused to touch – That I refused to touch – the word soul here being used to denote himself. The idea here is, that those things which formerly were objects of loathing to him, had become his painful and distressing food. The idea may be either that he was reduced to the greatest pain and distress in partaking of his food, since he loathed that which he was obliged to eat (compare notes, Job 3:24), or more probably his calamity is described under the image of loathsome food in accordance with the Oriental usage, by which one is said to eat or taste anything; that is, to experience it. His sorrows were as sickening to him as the articles of food which he had mentioned were to the stomach. The Septuagint renders it strangely, For my wrath – mou he orge – cannot cease. For I see my food offensive as the smell of a lion – hosper osmen leontos.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Heb. As the sicknesses or sorrows of my meat, i.e. as my sorrowful meat, which I am constrained to eat with grief of heart. The particle as, either,
1. Notes not the similitude, but the truth of the thing, as it is oft used, as hath been formerly noted and proved. So the sense is, that such meat as formerly he should have abhorred to touch, either for the quality of it, or for his tears or ulcerous matter which mixed themselves with it, he was now forced by the necessities of nature, and his own poverty, to eat. Or,
2. Implies that the following words are not to be understood properly, but metaphorically. And so the sense may be this, Those grievous afflictions, which according to the principles and common inclinations of human nature I dreaded the very touch and thought of, they are now my daily, though sorrowful, bread; I am forced constantly to feed upon them; as other persons in great afflictions are said to be fed with bread of tears, Psa 80:5, and to eat ashes like bread, Psa 102:9. Others make this a censure of Eliphazs words, as ungrateful and loathsome to him. But that sense seems neither to agree with the words of this verse, nor with its scope and coherence with the former, of which See Poole “Job 6:6“.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. To “touch” iscontrasted with “meat.” “My taste refused evento touch it, and yet am I fed with such meat ofsickness.” The second clause literally, is, “Such is likethe sickness of my food.” The natural taste abhors even to touchinsipid food, and such forms my nourishment. For my sickness is likesuch nauseous food [UMBREIT].(Psa 42:3; Psa 80:5;Psa 102:9). No wonder, then, Icomplain.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The things [that] my soul refused to touch [are] as my sorrowful meat. Meaning either the above things, that which is unsavoury, and the white of an egg, of any other food, which in the time of his prosperity he would not touch with his fingers, much less eat, but now was glad of, and were his constant food in his present sorrowful circumstances; the sense given by some Jewish writers i is, that what he disdained to touch or wipe his hands with formerly, he was glad to make use of as a tablecloth to eat his bread of sorrow upon; but it rather intends the insipid and disagreeable words of his friends, their doctrines, instructions, and exhortations they gave him, but were refused and rejected by him; and which he before compares to unsavoury food, the white of an egg, or the spittle of a dreaming man, or the dribble of a fool; and which were as much loathed and nauseated by him, as his food that was “loathed” by him k, either because of his want of appetite, or because of the badness of it, such as were corrupt and “rotten”, and even as the “excrements” of food l; those he refused to receive with as much indignation as he could such sort of food offered him; and therefore we find, that notwithstanding all that had been said to him, he continued in the same sentiment and disposition of mind, to desire death rather than life, as follows.
i Jarchi & R. Mesallem in ib. k “ut fastidia pannis mei”, Cocceius. l “Velut excrement um panis”, Neuman. apud Michael.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
7. The things that my soul refused The verse reads literally, My soul refuses to touch! They are as tainted food to me. Thus most of the recent commentators. Hitzig, however, renders , crumbs; which, in connexion with “my food,” to say the least, makes very poor sense. Job’s soul recoils from, absolutely loathes, the sorrows of which he speaks in the fourth verse, and again, under a figure, in the sixth. They are to him “like putridity in his food.” Furst.
Job 6:7. The things that my soul refuseth, &c. Job, persisting in his allegory, goes on to shew how disagreeable to his stomach the speech of Eliphaz had been, says Schultens, who translates the verse thus: My soul refuseth to touch such things; they are to me as corrupted food.
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“The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat.” Job 6:7
Here we are called upon to recognise the astounding reverses which may take place in life. It would seem as if nothing were impossible in the way of human reverses. The most shocking events become commonplaces, and the things that are most dreaded force upon us their unwelcome familiarity. Sometimes such reverses are good for us. The dainty soul despises all common life, all democracy, all popular association, and prefers to live in dignified solitude or in luxurious ease. When such a soul is brought by poverty, or ill-health, or any other circumstance, to mingle with hitherto despised classes, not unfrequently those classes appear in a better light than when seen from a distance. Many a man has been forced to a better interpretation of society by the loss of position which gave him uniqueness and assured him a large measure of ease and comfort. We can only be fully trained to the highest life by being changed from one position to another, and by being compelled to associate with those who are supposed to be beneath us, and take part in service which has always been avoided as drudgery. The poor present many aspects which are far from inviting to the rich; yet when they are approached sympathetically even they can contribute a good deal towards the solid comfort and real progress of their nominal superiors. Even disease, which when viewed in the abstract is most repulsive and intolerable, may come to create a kind of companionship between itself and the sufferer, so that the sufferer may look to his disease for instruction, chastening, discipline, and many moral advantages. The Psalmist said: It was good for me that I was afflicted: before I was afflicted I went astray. He: did not value the affliction for its own sake, but for the sake of the things which it wrought out in the cultivation and perfecting of his character. Job did not accept the discipline with gratitude when he declared that the things which his soul once refused had become his meat; he did not forget to add the word “sorrowful”; so the text stands as we find it. Nor may we complain that Job did not at once reach the highest ideal of character, assimilating things evil in themselves, and accounting them as good; there must be a period of training: for who can be at once familiar with sorrow, or immediately excite his affections in the interests of distress and loss and pain? Keep in view the point, that we may suffer the most violent reverses in fortune, and be compelled altogether to change our tastes and affinities. We are not separated from any form of disease or sorrow by permanent boundaries: now we are on this side, and now we are on that, and oftentimes it would appear as if we had no control over our position or lot in life. One thing we can do; we can discourage the spirit of contempt in regard to those whose lot is heavy and bitter, and see in them what we ourselves may one day be: the very thinnest partition divides the richest man from the poorest: the strongest man may be dead tomorrow: one lightning flash, and the most herculean frame may be thrown into decrepitude and helplessness. So we must learn from one another, and understand that the highest and the lowest are related, and that exchange of position is always within the range of possibility, and may sometimes be necessary to the perfecting of our spiritual culture.
Job 6:7 The things [that] my soul refused to touch [are] as my sorrowful meat.
Ver. 7. The things that my soul refused to touch, &c. ] I suffer such torments even in my very soul, as the very thought of them would heretofore have frightened me. Thus Mr Diodati. Others take soul here for the appetite, and so make this the sense: Those things which I exceedingly loathed, and would once have thought scorn to have touched, are now my sorrowful meat; I am forced with a heavy heart to feed upon them for want of better; and they go down the worse because you vex me with your hard words (who have little need of such choke pears), and will not allow me the liberty of a needful lamentation, which yet I must needs take (lest heart should break), and say, as before, Job 3:1-26 , though with some more respect to God, the object of my present prayer:
soul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
meat = bread. Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Species), App-6, put for all kinds of food.
as my sorrowful meat: 1Ki 17:12, 1Ki 22:27, Psa 102:9, Eze 4:14, Eze 4:16, Eze 12:18, Eze 12:19, Dan 10:3
Reciprocal: Job 12:3 – I am not inferior to you Psa 80:5 – General Pro 27:7 – to
Job 6:7. The things that my soul refused, &c. Job, persisting in his allegory, says Schultens, goes on to show how disagreeable to his stomach the speech of Eliphaz had been. This learned critic accordingly translates the verse thus: My soul refuseth to touch such things; they are to me as corrupted food. But Dr. Dodd, after quoting these words of Schultens, observes, he cannot help thinking that this and the two preceding verses will bear another interpretation, and that Job means, in them, to offer a justification for himself; to declare that he had sufficient ground for complaint, without which it was no more usual for man to lament than for the ox or ass to low or bray, when they had sufficient food, &c. The sense of the verse seems to be, Those grievous afflictions, which I dreaded the very thought of, are now my daily, though sorrowful, bread.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments