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The strength of their hands profit me - He is speaking here of the fathers of these young men. What was the strength of their hands to me? Their old age also has perished. The sense of which I believe to be this: I have never esteemed their strength even in their most vigorous youth, nor their conduct, nor their counsel even in old age. They were never good for any thing, either young or old. As their youth was without profit, so their old age was without honor. See Calmet. Mr. Good contends that the words are Arabic, and should be translated according to the meaning in that language, and the first clause of the third verse joined to the latter clause of the second, without which no good meaning can be elicited so as to keep properly close to the letter. I shall give the Hebrew text, Mr. Good's Arabic, and its translation: -
The Hebrew text is this: -
כלח אבד עלימו
aleymo abad calach
גלמוד ובכפן בחסר
becheser ubechaphan galmud .
The Arabic version which he translates thus: -
"With whom crabbed looks are perpetual,
From hunger and flinty famine."
This translation is very little distant from the import of the present Hebrew text, if it may be called Hebrew, when the principal words are pure Arabic, and the others constructively so.
Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me - There has been much difference of opinion respecting the meaning of this passage. The general sense is clear. Job means to describe those who were reduced by poverty and want, and who were without respectability or home, and who had no power in any way to affect him. He states that they were so abject and worthless as not to be worth his attention; but even this fact is intended to show how low he was himself reduced, since even the most degraded ranks in life did not show any respect to one who had been honored by princes. The Vulgate renders this, “The strength - virtus - of whose hands is to me as nothing, and they are regarded as unworthy of life.” The Septuagint, “And the strength of their hands what is it to me? Upon whom perfection - συντέλεια sunteleia - has perished.” Coverdale, “The power and strength of their hands might do me no good, and as for their age, it is spent and passed away without any profit.” The literal translation is, “Even the strength of their hands, what is it to me?” The meaning is, that their power was not worth regarding. They were abject, feeble, and reduced by hunger - poor emaciated creatures, who could do him neither good nor evil. Yet this fact did not make him feel less the indignity of being treated by such vagrants with scorn.
In whom old age was perished - Or, rather, in whom vigor, or the power of accomplishing, anything, has ceased. The word כלח kelach means “completion,” or the act or power of finishing or completing anything. Then it denotes old age - age as “finished” or “completed;” Job 5:26. Here it means the maturity or vigor which would enable a man to complete or accomplish anything, and the idea is, that in these persons this had utterly perished. Reduced by hunger and want, they had no power of effecting anything, and were unworthy of regard. The word used here occurs only in this book in Hebrew Job 5:26; Job 30:2, but is common in Arabic; where it refers to the “wrinkles,” the “wanness,” and the “austere aspect” of the countenance, especially in age. See “Castell‘s Lex.”