God’s Word Translation
Job 6:21
21“So you are as unreliable to me ⌞as they are⌟. You see something terrifying, and you are afraid.
Job 6:21 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)For now ye are nothing; ye see my casting down, and are afraid.
- New International Version (NIV)Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see something dreadful and are afraid.
- English Standard Version (ESV)For you have now become nothing; you see my calamity and are afraid.
- New King James Version (NKJV)For now you are nothing, You see terror and are afraid.
Context of Job 6:21
19Caravans from Tema look for them. Travelers from Sheba search for them. 20They are ashamed because they relied on the streams. Arriving there, they are disappointed. “So you are as unreliable to me ⌞as they are⌟. You see something terrifying, and you are afraid. 22Did I ever say, ‘Give me a gift,’ or ‘Offer me a bribe from your wealth,’ 23or ‘Rescue me from an enemy,’ or ‘Ransom me from a tyrant’?
Read all of Job 6Job 6:21 word by word
כִּֽי־עַ֭תָּה הֱיִ֣יתֶם ל֑וֹ תִּֽרְא֥וּ חֲ֝תַ֗ת וַתִּירָֽאוּ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 6:21
- Job 6:15My brothers have been as deceptive as seasonal rivers, like the seasonal riverbeds that flood.
- Job 13:4But you are smearing me with lies. All of you are worthless physicians.
- Psalms 62:9Common people are only a whisper in the wind. Important people are only a delusion. When all of them are weighed on a scale, they amount to nothing. They are less than a whisper in the wind.
- Isaiah 2:22Stop trusting people. Their life is in their nostrils. How can they be worth anything?
- Jeremiah 17:5“This is what the Lord says: Cursed is the person who trusts humans, who makes flesh and blood his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
- Job 2:11When Job’s three friends heard about all the terrible things that had happened to him, each of them came from his home—Eliphaz of Teman, Bildad of Shuah, Zophar of Naama. They had agreed they would go together to sympathize with Job and comfort him.
- Psalms 38:11My loved ones and my friends keep their distance and my relatives stand far away because of my sickness.
- Proverbs 19:7The entire family of a poor person hates him. How much more do his friends keep their distance from him! When he chases them with words, they are gone.
- Jeremiah 51:9We wanted to heal Babylon, but it couldn’t be healed. Let’s abandon it and go to our own land. God has judged Babylon. Its judgment is complete.
- Matthew 26:31Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will abandon me tonight. Scripture says, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep in the flock will be scattered.’
- 2 Timothy 4:16At my first hearing no one stood up in my defense. Everyone abandoned me. I pray that it won’t be held against them.
- Revelation 18:9“The kings of the earth who had sex with her and lived in luxury with her will cry and mourn over her when they see the smoke rise from her raging fire.
Commentaries on Job 6:21
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 21For now ye are nothing - Ye are just to me as those deceitful torrents to the caravans of Tema and Sheba; they were nothing to them; ye are nothing to me. Ye see my casting down - Ye see that I have been hurried from my eminence into want and misery, as the flood from the top of the mountains, which is divided, evaporated, and lost in the desert. And are afraid - Ye are terrified at the calamity that has come upon me; and instead of drawing near to…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 21For now ye are as nothing - Margin, “or, Ye are like to it, or them.” In the margin also the word “nothing” is rendered “not.” This variety arises from a difference of reading in the Hebrew text, many MSS. having instead of (לא lô' ), not, (לו lô' ), to him, or to it. Which is correct, it is not easy to determine. Rosenmuller supposes that it is only a variety in writing the word לא l' where the waw is often used for.א The probability is, that it means…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 14-30Verses 14-30 In his prosperity Job formed great expectations from his friends, but now was disappointed. This he compares to the failing of brooks in summer. Those who rest their expectations on the creature, will find it fail when it should help them; whereas those who make God their confidence, have help in the time of need, He 4:16. Those who make gold their hope, sooner or later will be ashamed of it, and of their confidence in it. It is our wisdom to…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 14-27Job and his friends might have shared a covenant (special agreement) of loyalty and faith (Hebrew khesed; see Genesis 21:23; Exodus 15:13; 1 Chronicles 16:34). This bond would have made them like brothers, those who protect, and friends he could trust (Job 6:14–15; 6:21–23, 27). If they were in a covenant with one another, Job was accusing his friends of violating their covenant with him.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2121. As the dried-up brook is to the caravan, so are ye to me, namely, a nothing; ye might as well not be in existence [Umbreit]. The Margin "like to them," or "to it" (namely, the waters of the brook), is not so good a reading. ye see, and are afraid--Ye are struck aghast at the sight of my misery, and ye lose presence of mind. Job puts this mild construction on their failing to relieve him with affectionate consolation.Read the comment
Topics related to Job 6:21
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 6
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
Commentaries