The Meaning of Job 6:21 Explained

Job 6:21

KJV: For now ye are nothing; ye see my casting down, and are afraid.

YLT: Surely now ye have become the same! Ye see a downfall, and are afraid.

Darby: So now ye are nothing; ye see a terrible object and are afraid.

ASV: For now ye are nothing; Ye see a terror, and are afraid.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

For now ye are nothing; ye see  [my] casting down,  and are afraid. 

What does Job 6:21 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 6:1-30 - "a Deceitful Brook"
The burden of Job's complaint is the ill-treatment meted out by his friends. They had accused him of speaking rashly, but they had not measured the greatness of his pain, Job 6:4, or they would have seen it to be as natural as the braying and lowing of hungry and suffering beasts, Job 6:5. A man would not take insipid food without complaint; how much more reason had he to complain whose tears were his meat day and night, Job 6:6-7! So bitter were his pains that he would welcome death, and exult in the throes of dissolution, Job 6:8-10. It could hardly be otherwise than that he should succumb, since he had only the ordinary strength of mortals, and both strength and wisdom were exhausted, Job 6:11-13.
Job next characterizes the assistance of his friends as winter brooks, turbid with melted ice and snow, which bitterly disappoint the travelers who had hoped to find water, and perish beside the dry heaps of stones, Job 6:17. They had found fault with his words, which, in the circumstances, were not a true index to his heart, Job 6:26; but a look into his face would have sufficed to attest his innocence of the sin of which they accused him, Job 6:28-30.
From these complaints of faithlessness and disappointment we turn to Him who, having been made perfect through suffering, has become "the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him," Hebrews 5:9. [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 6

1  Job shows that his complaints are not causeless
8  He wishes for death, wherein he is assured of comfort
14  He reproves his friends of unkindness

What do the individual words in Job 6:21 mean?

For now you are - nothing You see terror and are afraid
כִּֽי־ עַ֭תָּה הֱיִ֣יתֶם [לא] (ל֑וֹ) תִּֽרְא֥וּ חֲ֝תַ֗ת וַתִּירָֽאוּ

עַ֭תָּה  now 
Parse: Adverb
Root: עַתָּה  
Sense: now.
הֱיִ֣יתֶם  you  are 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Perfect, second person masculine plural
Root: אֶהְיֶה 
Sense: to be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out.
[לא]  - 
Parse: Adverb, Negative particle
(ל֑וֹ)  nothing 
Parse: Preposition, third person masculine singular
Root: הֲלֹא 
Sense: not, no.
תִּֽרְא֥וּ  You  see 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, second person masculine plural
Root: רָאָה 
Sense: to see, look at, inspect, perceive, consider.
חֲ֝תַ֗ת  terror 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: חֲתַת  
Sense: terror.
וַתִּירָֽאוּ  and  are  afraid 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Qal, Consecutive imperfect, second person masculine plural
Root: יָרֵא 
Sense: to fear, revere, be afraid.