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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comAdam Clarke Commentary - Job 6:12 - 6:12
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Is my strength the strength of stones? - I am neither a rock, nor is my flesh brass, that I can endure all these calamities. This is a proverbial saying, and exists in all countries. Cicero says, Non enim est e saxo sculptus, aut e Robore dolatus Homo; habet corpus, habet animum; movetur mente, movetur sensibus. “For man is not chiselled out of the rock, nor hewn out of the oak; he has a body, and he has a soul; the one is actuated by intellect, the other by the senses.” Quaest. Acad. iv. 31. So Homer, where he represents Apollo urging the Trojans to attack the Greeks: -
Νεμεσησε δ’ Απολλων,
Περγαμου εκκατιδων· Τρωεσσι δε κεκλετ’ αυσας·
Ορνυσθ’, ἱπποδαμοι Τρωες, μηδ’ εικετε χαρμης
Αργειοις· επει ου σφιλιθος χρως, ουδε σιδηρος,
Χαλκον ανασχεσθαι ταμεσιχροα βαλλομενοισιν.
Illiad, lib. iv., ver. 507.
But Phoebus now from Ilion’s towering height
Shines forth reveal’d, and animates the fight.
Trojans, be bold, and force to force oppose;
Your foaming steeds urge headlong on the foes!
Nor are their bodies rocks, nor ribb’d with steel;
Your weapons enter, and your strokes they feel.
Pope.
These are almost the same expressions as those in Job.