The Meaning of Job 6:6 Explained

Job 6:6

KJV: Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

YLT: Eaten is an insipid thing without salt? Is there sense in the drivel of dreams?

Darby: Shall that which is insipid be eaten without salt? Is there any taste in the white of an egg?

ASV: Can that which hath no savor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Can that which is unsavoury  be eaten  without salt?  or is there  [any] taste  in the white  of an egg? 

What does Job 6:6 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 6:6 mean?

can be eaten flavorless food without salt Or is there [any] taste in the white of an egg
הֲיֵאָכֵ֣ל תָּ֭פֵל מִבְּלִי־ ؟ מֶ֑לַח אִם־ יֶשׁ־ טַ֝֗עַם בְּרִ֣יר ؟ חַלָּמֽוּת

הֲיֵאָכֵ֣ל  can  be  eaten 
Parse: Verb, Nifal, Imperfect, third person masculine singular
Root: אָכַל  
Sense: to eat, devour, burn up, feed.
תָּ֭פֵל  flavorless  food 
Parse: Adjective, masculine singular
Root: תָּפֵל 
Sense: foolish, insipid.
מִבְּלִי־  without 
Parse: Preposition-m, Adverb
Root: בְּלִי 
Sense: wearing out adv of negation.
؟ מֶ֑לַח  salt 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: מֶלַח  
Sense: salt.
יֶשׁ־  is  there 
Parse: Adverb
Root: יֵשׁ  
Sense: being, existence, substance, there is or are.
טַ֝֗עַם  [any]  taste 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: טַעַם  
Sense: taste, judgment.
בְּרִ֣יר  in  the  white 
Parse: Preposition-b, Noun, masculine singular construct
Root: רִיר  
Sense: slime juice or liquid, spittle.
؟ חַלָּמֽוּת  of  an  egg 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular
Root: חַלָּמוּת  
Sense: purslane, a tasteless plant with thick slimy juice.