Job 7:6

6 My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and come to their end without hope.

Job 7:6 Meaning and Commentary

Job 7:6

My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle
Which moves very swiftly, being thrown quick and fast to and fro; some versions render it "a racer" F2 one that runs a race on foot, or rides on horseback, agreeably to ( Job 9:25 ) ; where, and in ( Job 7:7 ) ; to it, other similes are used, to set forth the swiftness and fleetness of man's days; as they also are elsewhere represented, as swift as a tale told, a word expressed, or a thought conceived, ( Psalms 90:9 ) ; and so here, by the Septuagint, are said to be "swifter than speech", though wrongly translated: this is to be understood, not of his days of affliction, distress, and sorrow; for these in his apprehension moved but slowly, and he could have been, glad that they had gone on faster; but either his days in common, or particularly his days of prosperity and pleasure, these were soon over with him; and which he sometimes wished for again, see ( Job 29:1-5 ) ;

and are spent without hope;
not without hope of happiness in another world, but without hope of being restored to his outward felicity in this; which Eliphaz had given him some him of, but he had no hope concerning it; see ( Job 5:24-26 ) ( Job 6:11 Job 6:19 ) ( 19:10 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F2 (dromewv) , Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion in Drusius.

Job 7:6 In-Context

4 When I lie down I say, "When shall I rise?' But the night is long, and I am full of tossing until dawn.
5 My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out again.
6 My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and come to their end without hope.
7 "Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good.
8 The eye that beholds me will see me no more; while your eyes are upon me, I shall be gone.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Or [as the thread runs out]
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.