My soul refuses to touch them; they are loathsome food to me.
Parallel translations
- WEB My soul refuses to touch them. They are as loathsome food to me.
- KJV The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat.
- NKJV My soul refuses to touch them; They are as loathsome food to me.
- NASB “My soul refuses to touch them; They are like loathsome food to me.
- NLT My appetite disappears when I look at it; I gag at the thought of eating it!
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
His soul refuses to touch such food, which has become loathsome to him. Job expresses revulsion at his suffering, or at the unsavory counsel he is given.
Overview
Job confesses that what is set before him, his afflictions or his friends' arguments, is as repugnant as food he cannot stomach. The verse captures the visceral recoil of a soul in deep distress. Such raw honesty before God is not faithlessness but a form of faith that brings real anguish to him, trusting that the God revealed in Christ welcomes the burdened rather than turning them away.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- 1 Kgs 22:27and tell them that this is what the king says: ‘Put this man in prison and feed him only bread and water until I return safely.’”
- Dan 10:3I ate no rich food, no meat or wine entered my mouth, and I did not anoint myself with oil until the three weeks were completed.
- Ps 102:9For I have eaten ashes like bread and mixed my drink with tears
- Job 3:24I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.
- 1 Kgs 17:12But she replied, “As surely as the LORD your God lives, I have no bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. Look, I am gathering a couple of sticks to take home and prepare a meal for myself and my son, so that we may eat it and die.”
- Ezek 4:14“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”
- Ezek 4:16Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure.
- Ezek 12:18–19“Son of man, eat your bread with trembling, and drink your water with quivering and anxiety.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 6:7 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.