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Selected Verse: Job 6:21 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Job 6:21	Strong Concordance	For now ye are nothing; ye see [07200] my casting down [02866], and are afraid [03372].
	King James	For now ye are nothing; ye see my casting down, and are afraid.

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
As the dried-up brook is to the caravan, so are ye to me, namely, a nothing; ye might as well not be in existence [UMBREIT]. The Margin "like to them," or "to it" (namely, the waters of the brook), is not so good a reading. ye see, and are afraid--Ye are struck aghast at the sight of my misery, and ye lose presence of mind. Job puts this mild construction on their failing to relieve him with affectionate consolation.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

As the dried-up brook is to the caravan, so are ye to me, namely, a nothing; ye might as well not be in existence [UMBREIT]. The Margin "like to them," or "to it" (namely, the waters of the brook), is not so good a reading.

ye see, and are afraid--Ye are struck aghast at the sight of my misery, and ye lose presence of mind. Job puts this mild construction on their failing to relieve him with affectionate consolation.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
For now ye are as nothing - Margin, "or, Ye are like to it, or them." In the margin also the word "nothing" is rendered "not." This variety arises from a difference of reading in the Hebrew text, many MSS. having instead of (לא lô'), not, (לו lô'), to him, or to it. Which is correct, it is not easy to determine. Rosenmuller supposes that it is only a variety in writing the word לא l', where the waw is often used for .א The probability is, that it means, that they were as nothing - like the stream that had disappeared. This is the point of the comparison; and this Job now applies to his friends. They had promised much by their coming - like the streams when swollen by rains and melted ice. But now they were found to be nothing. Ye see my casting down - חתת chăthath - my being broken or crushed; my calamity. Vulgate, plugam. Septuagint, τραῦμα trauma, wound. And are afraid - Are timid and fearful. You shrink back; you dare not approach the subject boldly, or come to me with words of consolation. You came with a professed intention to administer comfort, but your courage fails.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

For now ye are as nothing - Margin, "or, Ye are like to it, or them." In the margin also the word "nothing" is rendered "not." This variety arises from a difference of reading in the Hebrew text, many MSS. having instead of (לא lô'), not, (לו lô'), to him, or to it. Which is correct, it is not easy to determine. Rosenmuller supposes that it is only a variety in writing the word לא l', where the waw is often used for .א The probability is, that it means, that they were as nothing - like the stream that had disappeared. This is the point of the comparison; and this Job now applies to his friends. They had promised much by their coming - like the streams when swollen by rains and melted ice. But now they were found to be nothing.

Ye see my casting down - חתת chăthath - my being broken or crushed; my calamity. Vulgate, plugam. Septuagint, τραῦμα trauma, wound.

And are afraid - Are timid and fearful. You shrink back; you dare not approach the subject boldly, or come to me with words of consolation. You came with a professed intention to administer comfort, but your courage fails.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
21 For now ye are become nothing; You see misfortune, and are affrighted. 22 Have I then said, Give unto me, And give a present for me from your substance, 23 And deliver me from the enemy's hand, And redeem me from the hand of the tyrant? In Job 6:21, the reading wavers between לו and לא, with the Keri לו; but לו, which is consequently the lectio recepta, gives no suitable meaning, only in a slight degree appropriate, as this: ye are become it, i.e., such a mountain brook; for הייתם is not to be translated, with Stickel and others, estis, but facti estis. The Targum, however, translates after the Chethib: ye are become as though ye had never been, i.e., nothingness. Now, since לא, Aramaic לה, can (as Dan 4:32 shows) be used as a substantive (a not = a null), and the thought: ye are become nothing, your friendship proves itself equal to null, suits the imagery just used, we decide in favour of the Chethib; then in the figure the בתּהוּ עלה corresponds most to this, and is also, therefore, not to be explained away. The lxx, Syr., Vulg., translate לי instead of לו: ye are become it (such deceitful brooks) to me. Ewald proposes to read לי הייתם עתה כן (comp. the explanation, Ges. 137, rem. 3), - a conjecture which puts aside all difficulty; but the sentence with לא commends itself as being bolder and more expressive. All the rest explains itself. It is remarkable that in Job 6:21 the reading תּירוּ is also found, instead of תּראוּ: ye dreaded misfortune, and ye were then affrighted. הבוּ is here, as an exception, properispomenon, according to Ges. 29, 3. כּח, as Pro 5:10; Lev 26:20, what one has obtained by putting forth one's strength, syn. חיל, outward strength.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

21 For now ye are become nothing;

You see misfortune, and are affrighted.

22 Have I then said, Give unto me,

And give a present for me from your substance,

23 And deliver me from the enemy's hand,

And redeem me from the hand of the tyrant?

In Job 6:21, the reading wavers between לו and לא, with the Keri לו; but לו, which is consequently the lectio recepta, gives no suitable meaning, only in a slight degree appropriate, as this: ye are become it, i.e., such a mountain brook; for הייתם is not to be translated, with Stickel and others, estis, but facti estis. The Targum, however, translates after the Chethib: ye are become as though ye had never been, i.e., nothingness. Now, since לא, Aramaic לה, can (as Dan 4:32 shows) be used as a substantive (a not = a null), and the thought: ye are become nothing, your friendship proves itself equal to null, suits the imagery just used, we decide in favour of the Chethib; then in the figure the בתּהוּ עלה corresponds most to this, and is also, therefore, not to be explained away. The lxx, Syr., Vulg., translate לי instead of לו: ye are become it (such deceitful brooks) to me. Ewald proposes to read לי הייתם עתה כן (comp. the explanation, Ges. 137, rem. 3), - a conjecture which puts aside all difficulty; but the sentence with לא commends itself as being bolder and more expressive. All the rest explains itself. It is remarkable that in Job 6:21 the reading תּירוּ is also found, instead of תּראוּ: ye dreaded misfortune, and ye were then affrighted. הבוּ is here, as an exception, properispomenon, according to Ges. 29, 3. כּח, as Pro 5:10; Lev 26:20, what one has obtained by putting forth one's strength, syn. חיל, outward strength.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Nothing - You are to me as if you had never come to me; for I have no comfort from you. Afraid - You are shy of me, and afraid for yourselves, lest some further plagues should come upon me, wherein you for my sake, should be involved: or, lest I should be burdensome to you.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]

Nothing - You are to me as if you had never come to me; for I have no comfort from you. Afraid - You are shy of me, and afraid for yourselves, lest some further plagues should come upon me, wherein you for my sake, should be involved: or, lest I should be burdensome to you.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
For now ye are nothing - Ye are just to me as those deceitful torrents to the caravans of Tema and Sheba; they were nothing to them; ye are nothing to me. Ye see my casting down - Ye see that I have been hurried from my eminence into want and misery, as the flood from the top of the mountains, which is divided, evaporated, and lost in the desert. And are afraid - Ye are terrified at the calamity that has come upon me; and instead of drawing near to comfort me, ye start back at my appearance.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826

For now ye are nothing - Ye are just to me as those deceitful torrents to the caravans of Tema and Sheba; they were nothing to them; ye are nothing to me. Ye see my casting down - Ye see that I have been hurried from my eminence into want and misery, as the flood from the top of the mountains, which is divided, evaporated, and lost in the desert.

And are afraid - Ye are terrified at the calamity that has come upon me; and instead of drawing near to comfort me, ye start back at my appearance.

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