Job Chapter 6 verse 8 Holy Bible
Oh that I might have my request; And that God would grant `me' the thing that I long for!
read chapter 6 in ASV
If only I might have an answer to my prayer, and God would give me my desire!
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Oh that I might have my request, and that +God would grant my desire!
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Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I long for!
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Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I long for!
read chapter 6 in WBT
"Oh that I might have my request; That God would grant the thing that I long for!
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O that my request may come, That God may grant my hope!
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Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 8. - Oh that I might have my request! Here the second point is taken up. Eliphaz has threatened Job with death, representing it as the last and most terrible of punishments (Job 4:9, 20, 21; Job 5:2). Job's reply is that there is nothing he desires so much as death. His primary wish would have been never to have been born (Job 3:3-10); next to that, he would have desired an early death - the earlier the more acceptable (Job 3:11-19). As both these have been denied him, what he now desires, and earnestly asks for, is a speedy demise. It is not as yet clear what he thinks death to be, or whether he has any hope beyond the grave. Putting aside all such considerations, he here simply balances death against such a life as he now leads, and must expect to lead, since his disease is incurable, and decides in favour of death. It is not only his desire, but his "request" to God, that death may come to him quickly. And that God would grant me the thing that I long for; literally, my expectation or wish. The idea of taking his own life does not seem to have occurred to Job, as it would to a Greek (Plato, 'Phaedo,' ยง 16) or a Roman (Pithy, 'Epist.,' 1:12). He is too genuine a child of nature, too simple and unsophisticated, for such a thought to occur, and, if it occurred, would be too religious to entertain it for a moment. Like Aristotle, he would feel the act to be cowardly (Aristotle, 'Eth. Nic.,' 5, sub fin.); and, like Plato (l.s.c.), he would view it as rebellion against the will of God.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(8) Oh that I might have my request.--Baffled in the direction of his fellow-creatures, he turns, like many others, to God as his only hope, although it is rather from God than in God that his hope lies. However exceptional Job's trials, yet his language is the common language of all sufferers who think that relief, if it comes, must come through change of circumstances rather than in themselves in relation to circumstances. Thus Job looks forward to death as his only hope; whereas with God and in God there were many years of life and prosperity in store for him. So strong is this feeling in him, that he calls death the thing that he longs for, his hope or expectation. (Comp. Job 17, where even the hope that he had in death seems to have passed away and to have issued in blank hopelessness.)
