What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.
The verse belongs to the debate between Job and his three friends about his afflictions. It forms part of Job's poetic arguments about suffering. It describes streams that disappear when the weather turns warm and dry and are consumed by heat, showing how quickly they are depleted and how unreliable they are when needed. As such it pictures a hope that seems to offer help in adversity but vanishes when needed. The generally true claims about God's ultimate justice made in that debate were misapplied to Job, so affliction does not prove that a sufferer is under God's displeasure.
The verse belongs to the debate between Job and his three friends about his afflictions. It forms part of Job's poetic arguments about suffering. It describes streams that disappear when the weather turns warm and dry and are consumed by heat, showing how quickly they are depleted and how unreliable they are when needed. As such it pictures a hope that seems to offer help in adversity but vanishes when needed. The generally true claims about God's ultimate justice made in that debate were misapplied to Job, so affliction does not prove that a sufferer is under God's displeasure.