John Trapp on Job 6:15

Verſe 15. My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brooke] Even you, whom I eſteemed as my brethren (for to them he applyeth this ſpeech, verſe 21.) prove hollow and helpleſſe to me: like the river Araris, that moveth ſo ſlowly, that it can hardly be diſcerned, ſaith Caeſar, whether it flow forward or backward: or rather,Caſ. de bell. Gal. l. 1. to a certaine fiſh in that river Araris, called Scolopidus: which at the waxing of the Moon, is as white as the driven ſnow; and at the wayning thereof is as black as a burnt coal. Job here elegantly compareth them not to a river which is fed by a ſpring, and hath a perennity of flowing; but to a brook ariſing from rain or melted ſnow, the property whereof is, in a moiſture (when there is leaſt need of them) to ſwell; in a drought (when they ſhould do good) to fail. It is reported of the river Novanus in Lombardy, that at every mid-ſummer-ſolſtice it ſwelleth and runneth over the bankes, but in mid-winter is quite dry. Such were Jobs deceitfull brethren; good ſummer-birds &c. The ſame Author telleth us, that in that part of Spaine called Carrinenſis, Plin. lib. 2. cap. 103. Idem ibid. there is a river that ſhewes all the fiſh in it to be like gold: but take them into thine hand, and they ſoon appeare in their natural kinde and colour. Job found that all is not gold that gliſtereth.

And as the ſtream of brooks they paſſe away] i. e. as an impetuous land-flood, they faile me; and now, that I have moſt need of their refreſhments, they yeild me none; but the contrary rather: like as land-floods by their ſudden and violent overflow doe much hurt many times to corn and cattle. I can goe to theſe ſtreames of brookes, ſaith Job, and ſhew my friends the face of their hearts in thoſe waters.