Job 6:19
The caravans of Tema had looked to them,
The travelers of Sheba had hoped for them.
When I first started to blog about the Astros, I wanted the whole world to see it and maybe read enough about Jesus to be either encouraged or interested to seek more. Over the years and through the change to my new website, I am blogging about my walk with Jesus. And while I still want people to be encouraged or interested to seek more, there is almost nothing left to appeal to the worldly world. I have yet to post consistently on social media and my subscribed audience is some of my family and closest friends even after what I thought was a last-ditch marketing effort. On we go…
Whereas in the last verse some sources used caravans (with little support from me), in this one I used it. The subject is no longer the wadi, but people influenced by the wadi. One source used “troops” rather than “caravans”, but the military aspect seemed unnecessary. One source had “peer” rather than “look”, but it added no meaning. One source noted people were looking for water, several used the pronoun “them”, and many had no object at all.
“Travelers” had many alternatives including the military “companies”, “processions”, “convoys”, and “trains”. “Trains” seemed too technical now, “convoys” seemed equivalent to “caravans, and “processions” seemed disorganized. I should probably have used convoy over travelers, but I flipped a coin (so to speak). “Had hoped for them” was considered as “awaited”, “moved toward hoping”, “count on them”, “look in hope”, and simply “Hope”.
The New Revised Standard had “The caravans of Tema look, The travelers of Sheba hope.” I really liked this in spite of my conflict with the source in general. I got stuck on the past tense with an object “had …for them” and I could not tear myself away. Something about the historical aspect of Tema and Sheba pushed me that direction, but again it seems like a coin toss.
The impression is that people familiar with the desert that were constantly traveling back and forth, trading valuable goods, would be smart enough to not count of wadis (streams that dry up) for water supply. For me, the lesson is that we should not live our lives counting on anyone besides God to help us as we know only He is trustworthy. We should not put valuable things at the mercy of flawed people. Remember this is a spiritual journey and while we are free to trade with the world and use the resources around us, our treasure is our soul, and it should be entrusted only to God.
My worldly desire to be wide read must fall to my desire to follow the call of God to focus on those He has put before me and to trust that my efforts will be as successful as He desires when I am faithful. I hope my efforts will help many, but I know that at a minimum it helps me.