Albert Barnes Commentary Job 6:3

"For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas: Therefore have my words been rash." — Job 6:3 (ASV)

Heavier than the sand of the sea - That is, they would be found to be insupportable. Who could bear up the sands of the sea? So Job says of his sorrows. A comparison somewhat similar is found in Proverbs 27:3.

Heavy is a stone, and weighty the sand of the Sea,
But a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both.

My words are swallowed up - Margin, “I want words to express my grief.” This expresses the true sense—but not with the same poetic beauty. We express the same idea when we say that we are choked with grief; we are so overwhelmed with sorrow that we cannot speak. Any very deep emotion prevents the power of utterance. So in Psalm 77:4:

Thou holdest mine eyes waking:
I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

So the well-known expressions in Virgil,

Obstupui, steteruntque comae, et vox faucibus haesit.

There has been, however, considerable variety in the interpretation of the word rendered here “swallowed up”—לוּע lûa‛. Gesenius supposes that it means to speak rashly, to talk at random, and that the idea is that Job now admits his remarks had been unguarded—“therefore were my words rash.” The same sense Castell gives to the Arabic word.

Schultens renders it, “therefore are my words tempestuous or fretful.” Rosenmuller suggests, “my words exceed due moderation.” Castellio offers, “my words fail.” Luther translates it as, “therefore it is vain that I speak.” The Septuagint reads, “but my words seem to be evil.” Jerome states, “my words are full of grief.”

In this variety of interpretations, it is difficult to determine the precise meaning. However, the traditional interpretation is probably to be retained, by which the word is derived from לוּע lûa‛—meaning to absorb or to swallow up; compare Proverbs 20:25; Obadiah 1:16; Job 39:30; Proverbs 23:2. The word does not occur elsewhere.