Job 6:2

Old Testament Wisdom/Poetry ASV (1901)

What does Job 6:2 say?

The American Standard Version records this verse as: “Oh that my vexation were but weighed, And all my calamity laid in the balances!” Read the surrounding verses and the named sources below before drawing broader conclusions.

The verse

Oh that my vexation were but weighed, And all my calamity laid in the balances!
Job 6:2 — American Standard Version

Context — Job 6

American Standard Version (1901) — public domain. Click any verse for its study page.
2Oh that my vexation were but weighed, And all my calamity laid in the balances!

What do historical commentaries say?

John Gill's Exposition
John Gill (1697–1771) · Exposition of the Old and New Testament · 18th-century historical commentary
“Oh that my grief were thoroughly weighed, etc.] Or, “in weighing weighed” f234, most nicely and exactly weighed; that is, his grievous affliction, which caused so much grief of heart, and which had been shown in words and gestures; or his “wrath” and “anger” f235, as others render it: not his anger against Eliphaz, as Sephorno, but as before, meaning the same thing, his affliction; which either, as he understood, was the fruit and effect of the wrath and anger of God, who treated him as an enemy; or rather, that wrath, anger, and resentment raised in his own mind by those afflictive providences, and which broke out in hot and passionate expressions, and for which he was blamed as a foolish…”
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Barnes' Notes
Albert Barnes (1798–1870) · Notes on the Whole Bible · 19th-century historical commentary
“O that my grief were thoroughly weighed - The word rendered “grief” here (כעשׂ ka‛aś) may mean either vexation, trouble, grief; Ecclesiastes 1:18; Ecclesiastes 2:23; or it may mean anger; Deuteronomy 32:19; Ezekiel 20:28. It is rendered by the Septuagint here, ὀργή orgē - anger; by Jerome, peccata - sins. The sense of the whole passage may either be, that Job wished his anger or his complaints to be laid in the balance with his calamity, to see if one was more weighty than the other - meaning that he had not complained unreasonably or unjustly (Rosenmuller); or that he wished that his afflictions might be put into one scale and the sands of the sea into another, and the one weighed…”
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Wesley's Explanatory Notes
John Wesley (1703–1791) · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament and Old Testament notes · 18th-century historical commentary
“My grief - The cause of my grief. Weighed - Were fully understood, and duly considered. O that I had an equal judge! that would understand my case, and consider whether I have not cause for complaints. Together - Together with any other most heavy thing to be put into the other scale. Job 6:3”
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Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge
R. A. Torrey and contributors · The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge · Cross-reference reference work
“thoroughly: Job 4:5, Job 23:2 laid: Heb. lifted up Job 6:3”
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Related study paths

Sources and verification