Job 6:12

_IS MY STRENGTH THE STRENGTH OF STONES? OR IS MY FLESH OF BRASS?_ My strength. Disease had so attacked him that his strength would need to be hard as a stone, and his flesh like brass, not to sink under it. But he has only flesh like other men. It must, therefore, give way; so that the hope of restoration suggested by Eliphaz is vain (see remark, Job 6:11)....

8-13 Job had desired death as the happy end of his miseries. For this, Eliphaz had reproved him, but he asks for it again with more vehemence than before. It was very rash to speak thus of God destroying him. Who, for one hour, could endure the wrath of the Almighty, if he let loose his hand against him? Let us rather say with David, O spare me a little. Job grounds his comfort upon the testimony of his conscience, that he had been, in some degree, serviceable to the glory of God. Those who have grace in them, who have the evidence of it, and have it in exercise, have wisdom in them, which will be their help in the worst of times....

Verse Job 6:12. _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...

IS MY STRENGTH THE STRENGTH OF STONES? - That is, like a rampart or fortification made of stones, or like a craggy rock that can endure assaults made upon it. A rock will bear the beatings of the tempest, and resist the floods, but how can frail man do it? The idea of Job is, that he had no strength to bear up against these accumulated trials; that he was afraid that he should be left to sink under them, and to complain of God; and that his friends were not to wonder if his strength gave way, and he uttered the language of complaint. OR IS MY FLESH OF BRASS? - Margin, “brazen.” The comparison used here is not uncommon. So Cicero, Aca. Qu. iv. 31, says, Non enim est e saxo sculptus, ant e robore dolatus homo; habet corpus, habet animum; movetur mente, movetur sensibus: - “for man is not chiselled out of the rock, nor cut from a tree; he has a body, he has a soul; he is actuated by mind, h...

EXPOSITION Job 6:1. and 7. contain Job's reply to Eliphaz. In Job 6:1. he confines himself to three points: (1) a justification of his "grief"—_i.e._ of his vexation and impatience (Job 6:1); (2) a declaration that the destruction with which he has been threatened (Job 4:9, Job 4:21; Job 5:2), is exactly the thing which he most longs for (Job 6:8); and (3) a r

[IS] MY STRENGTH THE STRENGTH OF STONES?.... Is it like such especially which are foundation and corner stones that support a building? or like a stone pillar, that will bear a prodigious weight? no, it is not: OR [IS] MY FLESH OF BRASS? is it made of brass? or is it like to brass for hardness, or for sustaining any weight laid on it? it is not; and, therefore, it cannot bear up under the ponderous load of afflictions on it, but must sink and fail; it is but flesh and blood, and that flesh like grass, weak and feeble; and, therefore, death is better than life laden with such an insupportable burden....

CHAPTER S 6-7 JOB'S ANSWER _ 1. His Despair justified by the greatness of his suffering (Job 6:1)_ 2. He requests to be cut off (Job 6:8) 3. He reproacheth his friends (Job 6:14) 4. The misery of life (Job 7:1) 5. Two questions: Why does God deal with me thus? Why does He not pardon? (Job 7:8) Job 6:1. He meets first of all the reproach and accusation of Eliphaz (Job 4:1). Because his sufferings are so g

Job in his reply deals first of all with the charge of impatience. He catches up the word used by Eliphaz (Job 5:2), and declares that his impatience does but balance his calamity (Job 6:1 f.). The dreadfulness of the latter is that it is from God Himself (Job 6:4). The image is that of poisoned arrows, whose points have penetrated (within me). Job's spirit drinks their poison, so that he cannot help roaring. No creature complains without reason, no more does he (Job 6:5). What is loathsome and unbearable is thrust upon him (Job 6:6 f.) So keenly does he feel the truth of what he is saying that he forgets his defence, a

Job 6:1-13. Job defends the violence of his complaints and his despair Eliphaz had made no reference directly to sin on Job's part; but he drew dark pictures of the evilness of human nature before the eye of his friend, and for his advantage. Job shews a dislike to touch this point. His dislike is that of a man conscious of his innocence, and who can hardly believe that his friends seriously mean what their indirect allusions seem to imply. Hence he attaches his reply to what Eliphaz had openly expressed, namely, his wonder at the despair of Job and his blameable impatience. The idea of his having sinned he touches only in passing and with strong repudiation of it (ch. Job 6:28-30). Eliphaz had used the word "confounded" of Job's hopeless despair (ch....

2. In his wasted condition, death is desirable. (Job 6:8-13) TEXT 6:8-13 8 OH THAT I MIGHT HAVE MY REQUEST; And that God would grant _me_ THE THING THAT I LONG FOR! 9 Even that it would please God to crash me; That he would let loose his hand, and cat me off! 10 And be, it still my consolation, Yea, let me exult in pain that spareth not, That I have not denied the words of the Holy One. 11 What is my strength, that I should wait? And what Is mine end, that I should be patient? 12 Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass? 13 Is it not that I have no help in me, And that wisdom is driven quite from me? COMMENT 6:8-13 JOB 6:8Job's entreaty is that he be allowed to die