Job 6:12 kjv
Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?
Job 6:12 nkjv
Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh bronze?
Job 6:12 niv
Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze?
Job 6:12 esv
Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze?
Job 6:12 nlt
Do I have the strength of a stone?
Is my body made of bronze?
Job 6 12 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Psa 90:3-4 | You return man to dust... For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday... | Humanity's brevity and frailty compared to God's eternity. |
| Psa 103:14 | For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. | God's understanding of human weakness and mortality. |
| Isa 40:6-7 | All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field... the grass withers, the flower fades... | Humanity's transient, fading nature. |
| Jas 4:14 | Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. | The fragility and brevity of human life. |
| 2 Cor 4:7 | But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. | The physical body as fragile, containing God's power, emphasizing human weakness. |
| 2 Cor 12:9-10 | My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. | God's strength manifesting in human weakness. |
| Php 4:13 | I can do all things through him who strengthens me. | Strength for endurance comes from Christ, not innate human ability. |
| Heb 12:1-3 | Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight... and let us run with endurance the race... considering him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself... | The call to endure, contrasting with Job's despair over his own strength. |
| Job 7:3-6 | So I am allotted months of emptiness and nights of misery are appointed to me... My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and come to their end without hope. | Job's continuation of lament, reiterating the unending nature of his suffering and his lack of hope. |
| Job 10:9 | Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to dust? | Job appeals to God concerning his frail human creation. |
| Gen 3:19 | By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. | The pronouncement of human mortality and return to dust. |
| Jer 1:18 | For behold, I have made you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls... | God's strength to fortify a prophet, in stark contrast to Job's self-perception of weakness. |
| Eze 3:9 | Like an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead... | God gives prophet hardened resolve, contrasting with Job's inability to be hardened. |
| Psa 78:39 | He remembered that they were but flesh, a breath that goes and does not come again. | God's recognition of humanity's fleeting and vulnerable nature. |
| Rom 8:3 | For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do... | The limitation and weakness inherent in human flesh. |
| 1 Pet 1:24 | For "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls." | A reiteration of human fragility and perishability. |
| Job 14:1-2 | "Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and does not continue." | Another lament by Job highlighting the brevity and troubled nature of human existence. |
| Job 17:15 | Where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? | Job's desperate question concerning the absence of hope, akin to his query on strength. |
| Jer 8:22 | Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? | A rhetorical question highlighting a dire, unresolved situation, similar to Job's despair. |
| Lam 3:18 | So I say, "My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD." | A lament similar to Job's, expressing loss of endurance and hope. |
| Job 4:6-7 | Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope? "Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? | Eliphaz's words, implying Job should endure due to his righteousness, directly preceding Job's lament about his lack of strength. |
| Rom 7:18 | For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh... | A New Testament understanding of the fallen nature and limitation of human flesh. |
Job 6 verses
Job 6 12 Meaning
Job 6:12 encapsulates Job’s profound despair and physical exhaustion through two rhetorical questions that expect a definitive "no" answer. He is asking whether his physical constitution is like the impervious, enduring nature of stones or the unyielding, durable strength of bronze. By these comparisons, Job asserts that he is merely frail human flesh, completely devoid of superhuman strength or resilience, and thus incapable of enduring his relentless and unbearable suffering indefinitely. It is a cry of utter helplessness, emphasizing the vast disparity between his actual human fragility and the unimaginable strength that would be required to bear his tribulations without succumbing.
Job 6 12 Context
Job 6:12 is a powerful expression from Job's first response to his friend Eliphaz, following the initial period of silent mourning. After Eliphaz suggests that Job’s suffering must be due to some hidden sin (Job 4-5), Job begins to lament his overwhelming suffering and articulate his innocence. In Job 6:1-11, Job speaks of the immense weight of his affliction, stating that it outweighs the sand of the seas and drives him to a point of desiring death. He wishes that God would crush him, for he has no strength left to wait for a positive outcome. It is within this desperate context of physical and emotional torment, where his physical being is wracked by "dread" and pain (Job 6:4), and his life has no hope of relief (Job 6:11), that he asks these rhetorical questions in verse 12. He asserts the utter impossibility of continuing to bear such immense suffering with mere human fortitude, challenging the unspoken expectation of resilience from his friends.
Job 6 12 Word analysis
- הַאִם (ha'im): This is an interrogative particle, meaning "Is it...?" or "Surely not...?" It functions as a strong rhetorical question, demanding a negative answer. It expresses incredulity and the utter impossibility of the idea presented. Job is not genuinely asking for information; he is making an emphatic declaration that the proposed ideas (his strength being like stone or flesh like bronze) are absurd in his context.
- כֹּחִי (kochi): "My strength," or "my power/might." Derived from koach, it refers primarily to physical power, ability, or vigor. In Job's context, it denotes his bodily capacity for endurance. The possessive "my" emphasizes his personal and subjective experience of lacking this strength.
- כֹּחַ (koach): "Strength," "power." Used here in parallel construction to the preceding kochi. It reinforces the idea of physical fortitude.
- אֲבָנִים (avanim): "Stones," "rocks." Plural form. Stones are typically associated with durability, hardness, stability, immovability, and insensitivity. Job is contrasting his weak, suffering body with something unyielding and unbreakable. The implication is that stones do not feel pain or wear out from distress as his body does.
- בְּשָׂרִי (besari): "My flesh," or "my body/physical being." The word basar (flesh) in the Old Testament often signifies human frailty, mortality, and vulnerability, distinct from divine power or spirit. Job is highlighting his physical essence as being prone to decay, suffering, and weakness.
- נְחוּשָׁה (nechushah): "Bronze," "copper," or "brass." Like stone, bronze is a hard, strong, and durable material, resistant to wear and tear. It signifies toughness and resilience. The parallel with stones emphasizes the utter absence of such properties in Job's body. The word points to an enduring, solid, and almost invincible material, entirely unlike Job's current physical state.
- "Is my strength the strength of stones?": This phrase rhetorically asks if his body, which is physically decaying and agonizing, possesses the inherent unyielding strength and insensitivity of geological formations. It implies that only an unfeeling, inanimate object could withstand such continuous suffering, highlighting his own acute sensitivity and rapidly diminishing reserves.
- "Or is my flesh bronze?": This parallel phrase amplifies the previous one. It asks if his soft, perishable human body is actually made of an extremely hard and durable metal. This imagery vividly portrays his desperate plea: he simply does not have the kind of invulnerable resilience implied by the capacity to endure his profound suffering. It underscores his belief that he has reached the limits of human endurance.
Job 6 12 Bonus section
The imagery of stone and bronze throughout the Bible often conveys metaphors of divine power, unchangeable truth, or resolute defiance. For example, God can make a prophet's forehead like adamant (Eze 3:9) or city walls like bronze (Jer 1:18) to withstand opposition. Job flips this imagery on its head, using these materials to define what he explicitly LACKS. His lament reveals the crucial difference between divinely empowered endurance (given for a purpose, like in Jeremiah) and the innate, frail strength of mortal man. Job's words highlight the human experience of physical breakdown and existential questioning when one's assumed divine support seems to vanish, emphasizing the raw vulnerability of faith under trial. This verse profoundly underscores that genuine strength and endurance ultimately come from a source outside of humanity, rather than from inherent human capability, especially when faced with prolonged, intense adversity.
Job 6 12 Commentary
Job 6:12 is Job's desperate cry that exposes the utter limits of human physical and emotional endurance in the face of profound, inexplicable suffering. He is not appealing for help but rather articulating the depth of his physical incapacitation and despair. His rhetorical questions, comparing his "strength" to "stones" and his "flesh" to "bronze," vividly portray the vast chasm between his finite human constitution and the seemingly infinite pain he endures. This declaration serves as a direct challenge to the simplistic theological framework of his friends, who might have subtly implied that an upright man like Job should possess an unwavering resilience. Job counters that he is simply flesh and blood, subject to decay and exhaustion, without any supernatural or inanimate fortitude. His words underscore that true human weakness finds its limit in suffering, necessitating a source of strength beyond oneself, even as he feels utterly cut off from such divine aid. It's a raw and honest testament to humanity's vulnerability, regardless of one's righteousness.