Job 6:30

Is there error upon my tongue?

   Cannot my palate discern falsehood?

(Written 3/24, Posted  4/6 )

Last week on vacation, one of our companions had lost her sense of taste from COVID and she was receiving no joy from the good food we were eating. We had some food that I really enjoyed, so I was sad for her. I had not thought about my tongue being able to taste an error or my palate able to discern falsehood, but it certainly does when it comes to how food tastes or how I think it should. COVID is a disease with many negative outcomes, but I learned how I have taken the ability to taste for granted.

“Error” was suggested as ”any wrong”, “any wickedness”, “injustice”, or “iniquity”. “Error” seemed the most general of the bunch, so I went with it. One source had “lips” rather than “tongue”, but the meaning does not suffer going with the majority on this one.

“Palate” could have been “taste” or “mouth”. “Discern” could have been “taste”. I was not tempted at all to have “Cannot my taste taste”, so I picked the bigger words to carry the message. “Falsehood” was suggested as “calamity”, “malice”, “the unsavory”, “perverse things”, “evil”, or “disaster”. Disaster was the only common suggestion. I went with “falsehood” because it tied into the whole lying from verse 28.

My poet source had the second stitch as “What am I speaking of except disaster?” The negative “except” rather than “cannot”, the action “speak” rather than “discern”, and the common “disaster” make this a potential alternative, yet it has a totally different meaning from the first stitch (and the other sources). Once again, I am confronted by the need for God to show us the meaning of the words and not rely on others.

I still find the use of taste to find a lie a little odd, but it is poetry and oddities are allowed. I rather liken the verse to be Job saying “Don’t you know I know when I lie?” The next chapter is full of Job telling his friends how the world works and how God acts. We know it as “truth” as it is in the Bible, but we differentiate the truth in the words of Job from the worldly truth in the words of his companions. God gave us tools like our tongues to protect us from rotten or poisonous food, just as he gave us brains to discern between truth and lies. I pray we can all use them to face the challenges before us living in the world, but not of the world.