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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 6:11 - 6:11
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
11 What is my strength, that I should wait,
And my end, that I should be patient?
12 Is my strength like the strength of stones?
Or is my flesh brazen?
13 Or am I then not utterly helpless,
And continuance is driven from me?
The meaning of the question (Job 6:11); is: Is not my strength already so wasted away, and an unfortunate end so certain to me, that a long calm waiting is as impossible as it is useless? נֶפֶשׁ הֶֽאֱרִיךְ, to draw out the soul, is to extend and distribute the intensity of the emotion, to be forbearing, to be patient. The question (Job 6:11) is followed by אִם, usual in double questions: or is my strength stone, etc. הַאִם, which is so differently explained by commentators, is after all to be explained best from Num. 17:28, the only other passage in which it occurs. Here it is the same as הֲ אִם, and in Num. הֲלֹא אִם: or is it not so: we shall perish quickly altogether? Thus we explain the passage before us. The interrogative הֲ is also sometimes used elsewhere for הֲלֹא, Job 20:4; Job 41:1 (Ges. §153, 3); the additional אם stands per inversionem in the second instead of the first place: nonne an = an nonne, annon: or is it not so: is not my help in me = or am I not utterly helpless? Ewald explains differently (§356, a), according to which אִם, from the formula of an oath, is equivalent to לֹא. The meaning is the same. Continuance, תּוּשִׁיָּה, i.e., power of endurance, reasonable prospect is driven away, frightened away from him, is lost for him.