Bible Strands
Job 6:7
My soul refuses to touch them; they are loathsome food to me.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks to his three friends, responding to their argument that his suffering must stem from hidden sin. He marks the moment when his physical exhaustion and emotional despair make even basic sustenance feel repulsive.
The words — The verb מֵאֲנָה (me'anah, "it refuses") governs נַפְשִׁי (nafshi, "my soul/self"), stating a complete physiological rejection of his surroundings. He calls them כִּדְוֵי (ki'dvei, "illness of") or loathsome food, directly equating nourishment with sickness.
The thread — The text places this rejection of food alongside Job 3:24, where he sighs when food is set before him, and aligns it with the starvation and prison rations of 1 Kings 17:12 and 1 Kings 22:27. These references show a consistent biblical pattern where extreme distress inverts the body's natural response to sustenance.
Why it lands — The verse states that profound suffering can override the body's instinct for nourishment, making life itself feel unpalatable. It requires the reader to acknowledge despair as a real, embodied condition rather than dismissing it as mere complaint.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 17:12 But she replied, “As surely as the LORD your God lives, I have no bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. Look, I am gathering a couple of sticks to take home and prepare a meal for myself and my son, so that we may eat it and die.”
- 1 Kings 22:27 and tell them that this is what the king says: ‘Put this man in prison and feed him only bread and water until I return safely.’”
- Job 3:24 I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.
- Psalms 102:9 For I have eaten ashes like bread and mixed my drink with tears
- Ezekiel 4:14 “Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”
- Ezekiel 4:16 Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure.
- Ezekiel 12:18 “Son of man, eat your bread with trembling, and drink your water with quivering and anxiety.
- Daniel 10:3 I ate no rich food, no meat or wine entered my mouth, and I did not anoint myself with oil until the three weeks were completed.