Job 30:2

2 Of which men the strength of their hands was for nought to me, and they were guessed unworthy to that life (yea, they were too weak to be of any use to me).

Job 30:2 Meaning and Commentary

Job 30:2

Yea, whereto [might] the strength of their hands [profit] me,
&c.] For though they were strong, lusty, hale men, able to do business, yet their strength was to sit still and fold their hands in their bosoms, so that their strength was of no profit or avail to themselves or others; they were so slothful and lazy, that Job could not employ them in any business of his to any advantage to himself; and this may be one reason, among others, why he disdained to set them with the dogs of his flock to keep it; for the fathers seem to be intended all along to ( Job 30:8 ) ; though it matters not much to which of them the words are applied, since they were like father like son:

in whom old age was perished?
who did not arrive to old age, but were soon consumed by their lusts, or cut off for their sins; and so the strength and labour of their hands, had they been employed, would have been of little worth; because the time of their continuance in service would have been short, especially being idle and slothful: some understand it of a lively and vigorous old age, such as was in Moses; but this being not in them, they were unfit for business, see ( Job 5:26 ) ; or they had not the endowments of old age, the experience, wisdom, and prudence of ancient persons, to contrive, conduct, and manage affairs, or direct in the management of them, which would make up for lack of strength and labour. Ben Gersom, Bar Tzemach, and others, interpret the word of time, or the time of life, that was perished or lost in them; their whole course of life, being spent in sloth and idleness, was all lost time.

Job 30:2 In-Context

1 But now younger men in time scorn me, whose fathers I deigned not to set with the dogs of my flock. (But now men younger than me scorn me, men whose fathers I would not deign to put with the dogs of my flock.)

2 Of which men the strength of their hands was for nought to me, and they were guessed unworthy to that life (yea, they were too weak to be of any use to me).

3 They were barren for neediness and hunger; they gnawed in (the) wilderness, and were (made) pale for poverty and wretchedness;

4 and they ate herbs, and the rinds of trees; and the root of junipers was their meat. (and they ate grass, and the bark of trees; and juniper roots were their food.)

5 The which men ravished these things from great valleys; and when(ever) they had found any of all these things, they ran with (a) cry to them. (They were driven out from among men, who cried after them, as if they were thieves.)