Job 6:18
in Job 6Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go into the wasteland and perish.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The caravans that travel by the way of them turn aside; They go up into the waste, and perish.
KJV
The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish.
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This verse in Job 6
Commentary
11 notes on this verseThe paths of their way - They sometimes forsake their ancient channels, which is a frequent case with the river Ganges; and growing smaller and smaller from being divided into numerous streams, they go to nothing and perish - are at last utterly lost in the sands.
This site's exposition
Caravans turn aside from their routes
on Job 6:18-20
The figure continues: "Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go into the wasteland and perish". Job names trading peoples of Arabia, Tema and Sheba, counting on water that fails. "They are confounded because they had hoped" names the shame Job feels from friends who promised comfort and delivered accusation.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
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.
The Medieval Church2 voices
The paths of their steps are involved. All that is involved is folded back into itself. And there are some who as it were resolve, with all the purpose of their heart, to resist the vicious habits that mislead them, but when the crisis of the temptation comes full upon them, they do not hold out in their purposed resolution.
He shows the cause of this when he continues, "The paths they follow are tangled up." What is entangled goes back on itself with a kind of twist and turn, and so the footpaths of those men are entangled who seek nothing in their kinsmen …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
When those who are rich and high are sunk and impoverished, and stand in need of comfort, then those who before gathered about them stand aloof from them, those who before commended them are forward to run them down.
4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. 5 Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder? 6 Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
The paths of their way are turned aside,....
(1.) Their pretensions are fitly compared to the great show which the brooks make when they are swollen with the waters of a land flood, by the melting of the ice and snow, which make them blackish or muddy,
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
turned aside--rather, "caravans" (Hebrew, "travellers") turn aside from their way, by circuitous routes, to obtain water. They had seen the brook in spring full of water: and now in the summer heat, on their weary journey, they turn off their road by a devious route to reach the living waters, which they remembered with such pleasure.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The paths of their way are turned aside - Noyes renders this, “The caravans turn aside to them on their way.” Good, “The outlets of their channel wind about.” Rosenmuller, “The bands of travelers direct their journey to them.” Jerome, “Involved are the paths of their steps.” According to the interpretation of Rosenmuller, Noyes, Umbreit, and others, it means that the caravans on their journey turn aside from their regular way in order to find water there; and that in doing it they go up into a desert and perish. According to the other interpretation, it means that the channels of the stream wind along until they diminish and come to nothing. This latter I take to be the true sense of the passage, as it is undoubtedly the most poetical. It is a representation of the stream winding along in its channels, or making new channels as it flows from the mountain, until it diminishes by evaporation, and finally comes to nothing. They go to nothing - Noyes renders this very singularly, “into the desert,” - meaning that the caravans, when they suppose they are going to a place of refreshment, actually go to a desert, and thus perish. The word used here, however תהוּ tôhû, does not occur in the sense of a desert elsewhere in the Scriptures. It denotes nothingness, emptiness, vanity (see Gen 1:2), and very appropriately expresses the nothingness into which a stream vanishes when it is dried up or lost in the sand. The sense is, that those streams wander along until they become smaller and smaller, and then wholly disappear. They deceive the traveler who hoped to find refreshment there. Streams depending on snows and storms, and having no permanent fountains, cannot be confided in. Pretended friends are like them. In times of prosperity they are full of professions, and their aid is proffered to us. […]
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יִ֭לָּ֣פְתוּ | yilafetu | they twist | H3943 → | |
| אָרְח֣וֹת | ʾarechot | [the] paths of | H734 → | 58 times |
| דַּרְכָּ֑ם | darkam | way their | H1870 → | 707 times |
| יַעֲל֖וּ | yaalu | they go up | H5927 → | 890 times |
| בַתֹּ֣הוּ | vatohu | in the wasteland | H8414 → | 20 times |
| וְיֹאבֵֽדוּ׃ | veyovedu | so they may perish | H6 → | 184 times |
יִ֭לָּ֣פְתוּthey twist
yilafetuH3943 →
אָרְח֣וֹת[the] paths of
ʾarechotH734 →58 times
דַּרְכָּ֑םway their
darkamH1870 →707 times
יַעֲל֖וּthey go up
yaaluH5927 →890 times
בַתֹּ֣הוּin the wasteland
vatohuH8414 →20 times
וְיֹאבֵֽדוּ׃so they may perish
veyoveduH6 →184 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book VII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 6:16-18B; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.