Job 6:12

Christian Standard Bible ®

Is my strength that of stone,or my flesh made of bronze?

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass?

King James Version
Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?

English Standard Version
Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze?

New Century Version
I do not have the strength of stone; my flesh is not bronze.

New English Translation
Is my strength like that of stones? or is my flesh made of bronze?

Amplified Bible
"Is my strength and endurance that of stones, Or is my flesh made of bronze?

New American Standard Bible
"Is my strength the strength of stones, Or is my flesh bronze?

World English Bible
Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass?

Geneva Bible (1587)
Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brasse?

Legacy Standard Bible
Is my strength the strength of stones,Or is my flesh bronze?

Berean Standard Bible
Is my strength like that of stone, or my flesh made of bronze?

Contemporary English Version
I am not strong as stone or bronze,

Complete Jewish Bible
Is my strength the strength of stones? Is my flesh made of bronze?

Darby Translation
Is my strength the strength of stones? is my flesh of brass?

Easy-to-Read Version
I am not strong like a rock. My body is not made from bronze.

George Lamsa Translation
Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass?

Good News Translation
Am I made of stone? Is my body bronze?

Lexham English Bible
Or is my strength like the strength of stones? Or is my flesh bronze?

Literal Translation
Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh bronze?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Is my strength the strength of stones? Or, is my flesh made of brasse?

American Standard Version
Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass?

Bible in Basic English
Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh brass?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my fleshe of brasse?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?

King James Version (1611)
Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brasse?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?

English Revised Version
Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Nethir my strengthe is the strengthe of stoonus, nether my fleisch is of bras.

Update Bible Version
Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of bronze?

Webster's Bible Translation
[Is] my strength the strength of stones? or [is] my flesh of brass?

New King James Version
Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh bronze?

New Living Translation
Do I have the strength of a stone? Is my body made of bronze?

New Life Bible
Do I have the strength of stones? Is my flesh brass?

New Revised Standard
Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Is my strength, the strength of stones? Or is, my flesh, of bronze?

Douay-Rheims Bible
My strength is not the strength of stones, nor is my flesh of brass.

Revised Standard Version
Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze?

Young's Literal Translation
Is my strength the strength of stones? Is my flesh brazen?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Is my strength the strength of stones, Or is my flesh bronze?

Contextual Overview

⁸If only my request would be grantedand God would provide what I hope for: ⁹that he would decide to crush me,to unleash his power and cut me off! ¹⁰It would still bring me comfort,and I would leap for joy in unrelenting painthat I have not denied the words of the Holy One. ¹¹What strength do I have, that I should continue to hope?What is my future, that I should be patient? ¹²Is my strength that of stone,or my flesh made of bronze?¹³Since I cannot help myself,the hope for success has been banished from me.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

of brass: Heb. brasen, Job 40:18, Job 41:24

Reciprocal: Exodus 38:2 - brass

Cross-References

Genesis 6:1
When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them,

Genesis 6:2
the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves.

Genesis 6:3
And the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.”

Genesis 6:4
The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men.

Genesis 6:5
When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time,

Genesis 6:8
Noah, however, found favor with the Lord.

Genesis 6:13
Then God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them; therefore I am going to destroy them along with the earth.

Genesis 6:14
“Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it with pitch inside and outside.

Genesis 6:15
This is how you are to make it: The ark will be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.

Genesis 6:16
You are to make a roof, finishing the sides of the ark to within eighteen inches of the roof. You are to put a door in the side of the ark. Make it with lower, middle, and upper decks.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

[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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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, he is swayed by senses.” So Theocritus, in his description of Amycus, Idyll. xxii. 47:

Στήθεα δ ̓ ἐσφαίρωτο πελώρια και πλατὺ νῶτον,

Σαρκὶ σιδαρείῃ σφυρήλακος οἷα κολασσός.

Stēthea d' esfairōto pelōria kai platu nōton,

Sarki sidareiē sfurēlakos hoia kolossos.

Round as to his vast breast and broad back, and with iron flesh, he is as if a colossus formed with a hammer - So in Homer the expression frequently occurs - σιδήρειον ἦτορ sidēreion ētor - an iron heart - to denote courage. And so, according to Schultens, it has come to be a proverb, οὐκ ἀπὸ δρυὸς, οὐκ ἀπο πέτρης ouk apo druos, ouk apo petrēs - not from a tree, not from a rock. The meaning of Job is plain. He had flesh like others. His muscles, and nerves, and sinews, could not bear a constant force applied to them, as if they were made of brass or iron. They must give way; and he apprehended that he would sink under these sorrows, and be left to use language that might dishonor God. At all events, he felt that these great sorrows justified the strong expressions which he had already employed.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

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

Αργειοις· επει ου σφιλιθος χρως, ουδε σιδηρος,

Χαλκον ανασχεσθαι ταμεσιχροα βαλλομενοισιν.

ILLIAD, lib. iv., ver. 507.

But Phoebus now from Ilion's towering height

Shines forth reveal'd, and animates the fight.

Trojans, be bold, and force to force oppose;

Your foaming steeds urge headlong on the foes!

Nor are their bodies ROCKS, nor ribb'd with STEEL;

Your weapons enter, and your strokes they feel.

POPE.

These are almost the same expressions as those in Job.