Job will not be silent, and he certainly does not embrace the advice that Eliphaz, with good intention, has offered and suggested he take (5:27). Job first focuses on his plight (6:2–13). He is weighed down with unbearable misery, shot through with God’s poisonous arrows. Job is on his last gasp. He wants to die. Indeed, more in line with the way Job feels about God, he wants God to crush him, to complete the job he started.

Job turns to address his friends, spiritedly throwing accusations at them (6:14–30). He has expected comfort and sympathy; he has received none. Though only Eliphaz has spoken, Job condemns them all for turning their backs on expected loyalty (NIV’s “devotion,” Hebrew hesed). By doing so, they forsake “the fear [pi…