Job 6:14

“To him that is afflicted pity [should be showed] from his friend, etc.] An “afflicted” man is an object of pity, one that is afflicted of God; either inwardly with a wounded spirit, with a sense of God’s displeasure, with divine desertions, with the arrows of the Almighty sticking in him, the poison thereof drinking up his spirits; or outwardly with diseases of body, with want of the necessaries of life, with loss of near relations, as well as substance, which was Job’s case; or afflicted by Satan, shot at, sifted and buffered by him, distressed by his temptations, suggestions, and solicitations; or afflicted by men, reproached and persecuted for righteousness sake: in all such cases and…”

“pity--a proverb. Charity is the love which judges indulgently of our fellow men: it is put on a par with truth in Pro 3:3, for they together form the essence of moral perfection [UMBREIT]. It is the spirit of Christianity (Pe1 4:8; Co1 13:7; Pro 10:12; Pro 17:17). If it ought to be used towards all men, much more towards friends. But he who does not use it forsaketh (renounceth) the fear of the Almighty (Jam 2:13).”

“To him that is afflicted - Margin, “melteth.” The word here used (מס mâs) is from מסס mâsas, to melt, flow down, waste away, and here means one who pines away, or is consumed under calamities. The design of this verse is, to reprove his friends for the little sympathy which they had shown for him. He had looked for consolation in his trials, and he had a right to expect it; but he says that he had met with just the opposite, and that his calamity was aggravated by the fact that they had dealt only in the language of severity. Pity should be showed from his friend - Good renders this, “shame to the man who despiseth his friend.” A great variety of interpretations have been proposed of the…”

“To him - Heb. to him that is melted or dissolved with affections. But. &c. - But thou hast no pity for thy friend; a plain evidence that thou art guilty of what thou didst charge me with, even of the want of the fear of God. The least which those that are at ease can do for them that are pained, is to pity them, to feel a tender concern for them, and to sympathize with them. Job 6:15”

“6:14-27 Job and his friends might have been bound by a covenant of loyalty and faithfulness (Hebrew khesed; see Gen 21:23; Exod 15:13; 1 Chr 16:34) that made them like brothers (Job 6:14-15), protectors (6:21-23), and trusted friends (6:27). If this was the case, Job was accusing his friends of violating their covenant with him.”

“To him: Job 4:3, Job 4:4, Job 16:5, Job 19:21; Pro 17:17; Rom 12:15; Co1 12:26; Co2 11:29; Gal 6:2; Heb 13:3 is afflicted: Heb. melteth he forsaketh: Gen 20:11; Psa 36:1-3; Luk 23:40 Job 6:15”

“14 To him who is consumed gentleness is due from his friend, Otherwise he might forsake the fear of the Almighty. 15 My brothers are become false as a torrent, As the bed of torrents which vanish away - 16 They were blackish from ice, Snow is hidden in them - 17 In the time, when warmth cometh to them, they are destroyed. It becometh hot, they are extinguished from their place. Ewald supplies between Job 6:14 and Job 6:14 two lines which have professedly fallen out ("from a brother sympathy is due to the oppressed of God, in order he may not succumb to excessive grief"). Hitzig strongly characterizes this interpolation as a "pure swindle." There is really nothing wanting; but we need not…”