Job 16:13

13 His archers [rab] compass me round about [cabab], he cleaveth [palach] my reins [kilyah] asunder [palach], and doth not spare [chamal]; he poureth out [shaphak] my gall [marerah] upon the ground ['erets]. KJV-Interlinear

13 'His arrows surround me. Without mercy He splits my kidneys open; He pours out my gall on the ground. NASB

Arrows are weapons, instruments of war or a hunt. They are the tools of the hunter or the warrior, and they are primarily used to kill their intended victim. I suppose that they can also be used for target practice, but back in Jobs day, and though practice was certainly needed, the ultimate purpose of the arrow was for killing.

Arrows are used here in the plural. And their use is to identify that, we the victim, or Job is using this term, are completely outnumbered by our enemies, or potential enemies.

The world is far greater than any one of us, and not one of us, certainly not any human being alone, can stand against the world and defeat it, if assaulted by the full power of the world. Nations and even empires have tried to rule the world, and they have failed. A single person has no comparable chance.

This effectively keeps the boasting factor to a minimum.

The kidneys and the liver are effective filters in the body. It is interesting that even in Jobs day, some forty-five hundred years ago, that these terms were known. Some commentaries refer the gall to the gall bladder, but it is really a reference to the liver. The kidneys are also referred to as the reins symbolizing the emotional strains and stresses we experience in life.

When an adversary attacks and strikes his victim with a blow to the kidneys or to the liver, that is effectively a kill. Not one of us can live without the function of these vital organs.

The bile, is the poisonous fluid that is secreted out of these organs. The body produces waste, and these organs act as filters through which our physical bodies are cleansed. Our physical waste is comparable to the bitterness of the world produced within us. Bible doctrine is the cleansing filter.

If our filters, kidneys or liver, are damaged, then the poisons are secreted into the body in effect poisoning it. When our wounds are so severe that the bile is poured out onto the ground, then the wound is fatal. Death occurs quickly. That renders the injured person totally helpless.

And so what is Job telling us here?

We are small when it comes to any opposition to the world, and certainly to God. We are dust. Specks of dust, actually. And a single speck of dust is helpless before virtually everything.

Now is the time to post a prayer.