“Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together!”
My Notes
What Does Job 6:2 Mean?
"Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together!" Job wishes his suffering could be measured — placed on scales so everyone could see its actual weight. The metaphor of weighing grief implies that others have underestimated it: if you could put my pain on a scale, you'd understand. The grief is heavier than it appears. The calamity is more substantial than the observers assume.
The word "throughly" (shaqol yishaqel — weighed, be weighed, an emphatic doubling) intensifies the desire: not just weighed, but thoroughly weighed, completely measured, nothing left off the scale. Job wants the full weight of his suffering acknowledged — not a summary, not an estimate, but the complete, accurate measurement.
The appeal to "the balances" (mo'znayim — scales of justice) borrows marketplace and legal imagery: Job wants his grief to be judged by the same objective standard used for commerce and justice. He's asking for fairness in the evaluation of his pain — not sympathy, but accuracy.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Whose grief have you underestimated — and what would change if you saw its actual weight?
- 2.What does asking for grief to be 'thoroughly weighed' teach about the need for pain to be accurately acknowledged?
- 3.How does the scales/balance imagery reframe suffering from an emotional experience to one that demands honest measurement?
- 4.When has someone treated your pain as lighter than it actually was — and how did that feel?
Devotional
Weigh it. Put my grief on a scale. Measure it. Let everyone see how heavy this actually is. Job's cry isn't for sympathy — it's for accuracy. He wants his suffering measured because the people around him have underestimated it. The friends who counsel and correct and theologize haven't grasped the actual weight of what he's carrying.
The 'throughly weighed' — the emphatic doubling in Hebrew — means Job wants nothing left off the scale. Don't estimate. Don't summarize. Don't round down. Put ALL of it on the balance and let the needle register the full weight. The grief is bigger than anyone is treating it. The calamity is heavier than anyone acknowledges.
The scales imagery borrows from commerce and courts — the places where accuracy matters most. Job isn't asking for emotional support. He's asking for honest measurement. The same precision you'd demand when buying grain or judging a court case — apply that precision to my pain. Don't approximate my suffering. Weigh it.
Verse 3 will explain why: his grief outweighs the sand of the sea. The measurement Job requests would reveal that his suffering is literally immeasurable — heavier than any scale could register. He's not asking for pity. He's asking for the acknowledgment that his pain exceeds the categories his friends are using to understand it.
Whose grief around you have you underestimated — and what would happen if you let them put it on the scale and show you the real weight?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Oh that my grief were thoroughly weighed,.... Or, "in weighing weighed" (u), most nicely and exactly weighed; that is,…
O that my grief were thoroughly weighed - The word rendered “grief” here (כעשׂ ka‛aś) may mean either vexation,…
Eliphaz, in the beginning of his discourse, had been very sharp upon Job, and yet it does not appear that Job gave him…
my grief Rather, my impatience (ch. Job 4:2). The word expresses the whole demeanour which in ch. 3, and to the eyes of…