My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;
Parallel translations
- WEB My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away;
- BSB But my brothers are as faithless as wadis, as seasonal streams that overflow,
- NKJV My brothers have dealt deceitfully like a brook, Like the streams of the brooks that pass away,
- NASB “My brothers have acted deceitfully like a wadi, Like the torrents of wadis which drain away,
- NLT My brothers, you have proved as unreliable as a seasonal brook that overflows its banks in the spring
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job's brothers have proved as treacherous as a seasonal brook that dries up. He compares his friends to a stream that fails just when water is needed.
Overview
Job likens his friends to a wadi that runs in the rains but vanishes in drought, undependable when relied upon. The image powerfully conveys betrayal by those expected to help. In contrast stands the faithfulness of God, who is a fountain of living water that never fails, and of Christ, the friend who sticks closer than a brother and never disappoints the thirsty soul.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 38:11My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.
- Jer 15:18Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?
- Ps 41:9Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.
- John 16:32Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
- Ps 55:12–14For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:
- John 13:18I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.
- Ps 88:18Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.
- Jude 1:12These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
- Jer 9:4–5Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.
- Mic 7:5–6Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.
- Job 19:19All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.
- Jer 30:14All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 6:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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