What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient?
Job is answering friends who have shown him no pity. He asks why he should hold on when he has no strength left and no end in sight worth waiting for.
Plain sense of the question
One writer reads this question with the two lines that follow. Older translations render the first line as "that I should hope," and he takes it that way: no strength, no prospect, and no help within.
Leslie M. GrantHe felt he had no strength even to hope for anything better on earth, and no prospect worth living on for (v.11). Was he as strong and hard as stone or bronze, able to bear all his affliction with no feeling? (v.12). He could not look inside himself for any help, and soundness — even sound reasoning — was almost impossible for him (v.13).
The end he wanted
The "end" Job has in view is death. He has already asked God for it in the verses just before this one.
Leslie M. GrantAgain he expresses his desire for death, for which he had prayed before. He could not understand why God did not answer such a prayer, for he was sure death was preferable to the anguish he was suffering (vv.8-9). Yet he did not think of suicide being an option.
Friends who offered no pity
Job asks this in front of friends who treat him as if he were made of stone. One writer names the wound their words left.
William KellyWas his strength the strength of stone? Was his flesh bronze, able to bear all this without any feeling? Their lack of pity is what hurt him. Next to the great riddle of why God allowed all this to come on him, this is what he could not explain: not one word of real pity from them; not one word that was not very shallow, because of the bad judgment, the misjudgment, that lay underneath it.
A clear conscience turned the wrong way
Job is sure he has not denied God's words, and that record is real. But one writer shows what Job then does with it.
Samuel RidoutJob has only one thing to ask of God: that He would take his life. This, he says, would be a comfort, because his clear conscience would hold him up. He has not rejected God's words, and he has not rebelled against Him… That is true — it was indeed the fruit of God's grace in him — yet Job is using this righteousness in a self-righteous way, to justify himself at the expense of God's righteousness. He keeps on this way until he grows bolder in it. His friends have no answer for it, but God will vindicate Himself.
Not yet the language of faith
Others suffered terribly and did not speak like this. One writer sets them beside Job and names what he still lacks.
Samuel RidoutBut is this the language of faith — even of Old Testament faith? What about that noble army of martyrs who were tortured and refused release, who suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and prison, and were destitute, afflicted and mistreated (Heb. 11:35–38)? Would we expect to hear from them the complaints that fall from Job's lips? Paul could take pleasure in what fell on him. But Job needs light, and must learn to trust God when he cannot understand Him.
The end Job could not see
Job can see no end worth waiting for. His story ends somewhere he could not yet imagine.
The Christian's FriendJob did not feel happy while this trial tested him almost beyond what he could bear. He was happy because he was in the Lord's care, and because the Lord was leading him to a sure and certain goal of blessing. For the present his affliction was painful, not joyful. Yet it was about to yield him the peaceable fruit of righteousness, because it was training him… "The end of the Lord" is found in the last chapters of Job's story, where we see him restored to blessing and to the favour of the Lord, who blessed Job now that the discipline had reached its end.
Summary
- Strength. Job measures himself and finds nothing left: no power to hold on, no prospect ahead, no help within. He is flesh, not stone or bronze.
- Silence. The one prayer he wants answered is for death, and God does not answer it. Even so, he never treats suicide as an option.
- Sympathy. What cut deepest was not the loss but the lack of pity. His friends' words were shallow because they had misjudged him.
- Self. His clean conscience was real and God-given. Yet he began to use it to justify himself at God's expense, and grew bolder in it.
- End. He could see no end worth waiting for. The closing chapters show the goal was blessing all along. So he had to learn to trust God where he could not understand Him.