Job 30:2
What use to me was the strength of their hands, since their vigor had left them?
BSB
ASV
Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me? Men in whom ripe age is perished.
KJV
Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?
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.
The young were not fit for labour, they were so lazy, and went about their work so awkwardly: Whereto might the strength of their hands profit me? The old were not to be advised with in the smallest matters, for in them was old age indeed, but their old age was perished, they were twice children.
If their fathers could be of no profit to me, much less the sons, who are feebler than their sires; and in whose case the hope of attaining old age is utterly gone, so puny are they (Job 5:26) [MAURER]. Even if they had "strength of hands," that could be now of no use to me, as all I want in my present affliction is sympathy.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.