Job 6:13 kjv
Is not my help in me? and is wisdom driven quite from me?
Job 6:13 nkjv
Is my help not within me? And is success driven from me?
Job 6:13 niv
Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me?
Job 6:13 esv
Have I any help in me, when resource is driven from me?
Job 6:13 nlt
No, I am utterly helpless,
without any chance of success.
Job 6 13 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Job 7:16 | "I loathe my life...let me alone, for my days are but a breath." | Job's continued desire for death over suffering |
| Ps 22:6 | "But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people." | Profound self-abasement in suffering |
| Ps 73:26 | "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." | Contrast: human failure, divine strength |
| Isa 40:29-31 | "He gives power to the faint...those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength..." | God as the ultimate source of strength |
| Zech 4:6 | "'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD of hosts." | Divine accomplishment independent of human power |
| 2 Cor 12:9-10 | "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." | God's strength perfected in human weakness |
| Phil 4:13 | "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." | Believer's strength found in Christ |
| Job 4:5 | "But now it has come to you, and you are impatient..." | Eliphaz's criticism of Job's weakness |
| Job 17:15 | "Where then is my hope? Who will see my hope?" | Job's questioning of his future hope |
| Jer 17:5-6 | "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength..." | Folly of trusting in human strength |
| Jer 10:23 | "I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself..." | Acknowledgment of human inability to direct oneself |
| John 15:5 | "Apart from me you can do nothing." | Dependence on Christ for any true ability |
| Ps 71:9 | "Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent." | Plea for continued divine presence in weakness |
| Prov 24:10 | "If you falter in the day of adversity, your strength is small." | Relationship between adversity and strength |
| Lam 3:18 | "So I say, 'My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD.'" | Echoes Job's feeling of lost hope and endurance |
| Eph 6:10 | "Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might." | Call to rely on God's strength, not one's own |
| Heb 4:16 | "...come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." | Divine aid for the needy and suffering |
| Rom 5:6 | "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." | Humanity's spiritual weakness before God |
| Ps 38:8 | "I am feeble and badly crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart." | Describes physical and emotional collapse |
| Ps 142:4 | "No one cares for my soul." | Feeling of utter isolation and abandonment |
| Job 19:9 | "He has stripped me of my glory and taken the crown from my head." | Deprivation of honor and standing |
| Ps 77:7-9 | "Will the Lord cast off forever? And will He be favorable no more?" | Questioning God's perpetual abandonment |
| Hos 13:9 | "He destroys you, O Israel, for you are against Me, against your help." | Consequences of rejecting divine help |
Job 6 verses
Job 6 13 Meaning
Job 6:13 expresses Job's deep despair and a sense of utter powerlessness in his suffering. He rhetorically questions whether any inherent strength, wisdom, or practical ability remains within him to provide aid, and if all prospects for success or sound counsel have been entirely removed or banished from him. This declaration underscores his feeling of abandonment, both by his internal resources and by any external hope, challenging the conventional wisdom offered by his friends that strength and understanding should endure within a righteous man.
Job 6 13 Context
Job 6:13 is spoken by Job in his first extended response (chapters 6-7) to the first of his three friends, Eliphaz, who has just offered comfort interwoven with implicit accusations of sin as the cause of Job's suffering. Job begins this speech by expressing the immense burden of his grief and agony, describing his pain as heavier than the sand of the seas. He justifies his hasty words as a cry born of intense suffering (Job 6:1-12). In this immediate context, Job is asserting that his physical and emotional fortitude has completely collapsed. He feels no internal 'help' or 'wisdom' remaining, and any prospect of 'success' in overcoming his plight or even understanding it is gone. He perceives himself as stripped bare of all resources, directly refuting any expectation that he should simply endure with stoic strength or wisdom, as the friends might imply.
Historically and culturally, the ancient Near East often attributed health, wealth, and wisdom to divine favor, and affliction to divine displeasure or sin. Job's friends operate within this retribution theology. Job's lament in verse 13 is a powerful rejection of his friends' expectation that he should demonstrate resilience born of inner resources or conventional 'wisdom,' for he believes those resources are completely depleted or absent. He implies that the 'wisdom' they preach offers him no practical 'help.'
Job 6 13 Word analysis
- Is not: Introduces a rhetorical question expecting an affirmative answer in the negative, i.e., "Surely my help is NOT in me," emphasizing Job's firm conviction.
- my help: Hebrew tushiyah (תּוּשִׁיָּה). This is a crucial term. It denotes sound wisdom, practical insight, resourcefulness, deliverance, or solid support. It signifies more than just physical strength; it refers to intellectual or practical ability to cope with a situation. Job is denying that he possesses such inner counsel or ability to help himself. In other translations like KJV, it's rendered as "strength," capturing the broader sense of vital capacity, but "wisdom/sound wisdom" is often favored by scholars for tushiyah elsewhere (e.g., Prov 2:7, 8:14, 18:1; Mic 6:9). Its application here highlights Job's sense of mental and spiritual bankruptcy, not just physical.
- in me: Refers to internal, innate capacity or presence within Job himself. Job is stating that he finds no intrinsic ability or wisdom to alleviate his suffering.
- and is success: Hebrew again uses tushiyah here, often translated as "sound wisdom" or "sound plan." Here it is often rendered as "sound ability," "resourcefulness," "deliverance," or "lasting success" by commentators. The KJV's "wisdom" aligns with the intellectual nuance, while other versions' "success" implies a positive outcome or a way to navigate difficulty.
- driven from me: Hebrew niddaḥah (נִדָּחָה), from the root nadach (נָדַח), meaning "to banish," "to expel," "to remove forcefully," "to cause to go astray." This verb vividly portrays Job's sense that his capacity for sound wisdom or successful action has been violently cast out, not merely diminished. It emphasizes the active, external force, possibly divine, that has removed his capabilities.
Words-group by words-group analysis:
- Is not my help in me?: This interrogative phrasing is a desperate rhetorical plea. It underlines Job's deep sense of personal emptiness. He asks if he has any internal resource, strength, or ability to manage his catastrophic situation, indicating he profoundly feels that he does not. This is a cry of intellectual and emotional depletion.
- and is success driven from me?: This second part echoes and intensifies the first, extending the internal deficiency to external outcome or prospects. The "driving away" implies an external, powerful agent is responsible for the removal of any positive future, suggesting God or fate has actively stripped him of all hope for recovery or sound direction.
Job 6 13 Bonus section
The doubling of the term tushiyah in the Hebrew of Job 6:13, though translated differently (e.g., "help" and "success" or "strength" and "wisdom"), emphasizes the completeness of Job's perceived deprivation. It suggests that Job has lost both the inner capacity for resilience and the outward manifestation of it, like practical aid or positive outcomes. Scholars note that tushiyah is a unique word, often connected to God's wisdom, hinting at a theological struggle: if Job lacks this sound wisdom, is it because God has withheld or removed it? This connects to the larger theme in Job concerning human comprehension of divine ways. Furthermore, the intensity of "driven from me" (niddaḥah) indicates a strong sense of passive experience; Job doesn't merely lack these things, but they have been taken from him, emphasizing his powerlessness in the face of suffering and potentially his accusatory tone towards God for his predicament. This sets the stage for Job's ongoing struggle with God's sovereignty and perceived justice.
Job 6 13 Commentary
Job 6:13 encapsulates Job's profound sense of abandonment and desolation. Far from finding solace or inner strength in his time of suffering, Job asserts that he possesses neither inherent wisdom nor the practical ability to help himself. His rhetorical questions demand a clear "no" as an answer, signifying that he feels utterly bankrupt of internal resources (tushiyah) and that any prospect of sound resolution or 'success' has been actively, even violently, stripped away from him by an unseen force. This challenges the simplistic theology of his friends who would expect a righteous man to demonstrate fortitude and understanding in affliction. Job argues that his affliction is so overwhelming that it has eradicated his very capacity to cope or to foresee any positive outcome, leaving him without hope or self-reliance, driving him to the brink of despair.