What Does Job 30:2 Mean in the King James?
Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Strength can remain in the hands even as the vigor that gives it purpose has already perished.
THE MEANING
This line places the reader inside Job’s harsh calculation: these men’s strong hands offer him nothing because their vigor is gone. Usefulness here is measured by what their bodies can still do for the speaker.
THE ROOT
אָבַד
ʾābad
GROWS FROM
אבד
ʾ-b-d
To perish, become lost, or be destroyed.
“perished” in this verse is ʾābad. The verse uses the language of loss for the vigor that has vanished. The same root can describe someone perishing or a thing that is lost, so the line makes fading strength a concrete disappearance, not just a change in age.
ALSO GROWS
ʾavēdāh: A lost thing; something missing.
אֲבֵדָה
This branch names what has been lost; here, the vanished vigor is the loss Job sees in these men.
ʾavaddōn: Destruction.
אֲבַדּוֹן
This branch extends the root’s sense from being lost to destruction, giving the verse’s word for perished its full force.
THE PATTERN
Bodily capacity can fade, exposing what strength means when it does.
Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.THE THREAD
Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.The unusual Hebrew word כֶּלַח (kelach, ripeness or vigor), rendered “old age” here and “full age” there, is the same in both verses. Job 5:26 pictures that fullness arriving at the grave; Job 30:2 says it has perished.
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