Job 6:26
in Job 6Do you intend to correct my words, and treat as wind my cry of despair?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Do ye think to reprove words, Seeing that the speeches of one that is desperate are as wind?
KJV
Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?
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This verse in Job 6
Commentary
12 notes on this verseDo ye imagine to reprove words - Is it some expressions which in my hurry, and under the pressure of unprecedented affliction, I have uttered, that ye catch at? You can find no flaw in my conduct; would ye make me an Offender for a Word? Why endeavor to take such advantage of a man who complains in the bitterness of his heart, through despair of life and happiness?
This site's exposition
Teach me, and I will be silent
on Job 6:24-27
Job invites correction, "Teach me, and I will be silent," and asks to be shown "how I have erred". "How painful are honest words" grants that true words carry force. They would "cast lots for an orphan and barter away your friend," turning comfort into harm.
This site's exposition
treat as wind my cry of despair
The friends seize on Job's words and pass over the despair that produced them. Clarke says they make him an offender for a word, catching at phrases spoken under unprecedented pain. A cry wrung out by suffering counts to them as wind.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Job's words mean … "It is likely you have suffered the same in many things." Truth, however, is always hateful to many. Therefore, you despise my words of truth. "You do not come down to me," Job says, "nor do you speak about the gifts …
The Medieval Church2 voices
Ye only set in order speeches to upbraid, and ye speak words against the wind. There are two sorts of speech, which are very troublesome and mischievous to mankind, the one which aims to commend even froward things, the other which studies to be always carping even at right ones. The one is carried downward with the stream, the other sets itself to close the very channels and streams of truth. Fear keeps down the one, pride sets up the other.
"You join fine words together," since you carefully compose them so that your words may not seem lightly spoken. The third is when someone strengthens the arguments he uses against someone else with efficacious reasons. He excludes this saying, "You cast your words to the …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
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
Words - Do you think it is sufficient to quarrel with some of my words, without giving allowance for human infirmity, or extreme misery. Desperate - Of a poor miserable, hopeless and helpless man. As wind - Which pass away and are forgotten.
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Do ye imagine to reprove words,....
Thus, when our hearts are hot within us, what is ill done we are apt to misrepresent as if done designedly. That, though he had let fall some passionate expressions, yet in the main he was in the right, and that his afflictions, though very extraordinary, did not prove him to be a hypocrite or a wicked man. His righteousness he holds fast, and will not let it go.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
UMBREIT not so well takes the Hebrew for "as wind," as "sentiments"; making formal "sentiments" antithetical to mere "speeches," and supplying, not the word "reprove," but "would you regard," from the first clause.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Do ye imagine to reprove words? - A considerable variety of interpretation has occurred in regard to this verse. Dr. Good, following Schultens, supposes that the word translated wind here רוּח rûach means sighs, or groans, and renders it, Would ye then take up words for reproof, The mere venting the means of despair? But Rosenmuller has well remarked that the word never has this signification. Noyes renders it, Do ye mean to censure words? The words of a man in despair are but wind. In this, he has probably expressed the true sense. This explanation was proposed by Ludov. de Dieu, and is adopted by Rosenmuller. According to this, the sense is, “Do you think it reasonable to carp at mere words? Will you pass over weighty and important arguments and facts, and dwell upon the words merely that are extorted from a man in misery? Do you not know that one in a state of despair utters many expressions which ought not to be regarded as the result of his deliberate judgment? And will you spend your time in dwelling on those words rather than on the main argument involved?” This is probably the true sense of the verse; and if so it is a complaint of Job that they were disposed to make him “an offender for a word” rather than to enter into the real merits of the case, and especially that they were not disposed to make allowances for the hasty expressions of a man almost in despair.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הַלְהוֹכַ֣ח | halhokhach | ¿ to reprove | H3198 → | 59 times |
| מִלִּ֣ים | milim | words | H4405 → | 38 times |
| תַּחְשֹׁ֑בוּ | tachshou | do you plan | H2803 → | 124 times |
| וּ֝לְר֗וּחַ | uleruach | and to wind | H7307 → | 378 times |
| אִמְרֵ֥י | ʾimrei | [the] words of | H561 → | 49 times |
| נֹאָֽשׁ׃ | noash | [one who] despairs | H2976 → |
הַלְהוֹכַ֣ח¿ to reprove
halhokhachH3198 →59 times
מִלִּ֣יםwords
milimH4405 →38 times
תַּחְשֹׁ֑בוּdo you plan
tachshouH2803 →124 times
וּ֝לְר֗וּחַand to wind
uleruachH7307 →378 times
אִמְרֵ֥י[the] words of
ʾimreiH561 →49 times
נֹאָֽשׁ׃[one who] despairs
noashH2976 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Job 2:10“You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept from God only good and not adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
it leads to
- James 1:12
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.
- Lamentations 3:38–41
Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High?
- Job 1:21–22
saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.”
- Romans 12:12
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, persistent in prayer.
- James 1:12
Through
Matthew 12:37For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
it leads to
- Proverbs 13:3
He who guards his mouth protects his life, but the one who opens his lips invites his own ruin.
- Proverbs 13:3
Through
Ephesians 4:14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.
it leads to
- Hebrews 13:9
Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods of no value to those devoted to…
- Romans 16:17–18
Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Turn away from them.
- 1 Corinthians 14:20
Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.
- Hebrews 13:9
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Job
This page draws on 9 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); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book VII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Olympiodorus of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON JOB 6:24-27 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.