Job 6:1-2 - Exposition

But Job answered and said, Oh that my grief were throughly weighed! rather, my anger , or my vexation —the same word as that used by Eliphaz when reproaching Job, in Job 5:2 . Job wishes that, before men blame him, they would calmly weigh the force of his feelings and expressions against the weight of the calamity which oppresses him. His words may seem too strong and too violent; but are they more than a just counterpoise to the extreme character of his afflictions? The weighing of words and thoughts was an essential element in the Egyptian conception of the judgment, where Thoth held the balance, and in the one scale were placed the merits of the deceased, in the other the image of Ma, or Truth, and his fate was determined by the side to which the balance inclined. And my calamity laid in the balances together . My calamity placed in one scale, and my vexation in the other, and so weighed, each against each.