Job 7:1-11

1 "Human life is a struggle, isn't it? It's a life sentence to hard labor.
2 Like field hands longing for quitting time and working stiffs with nothing to hope for but payday,
3 I'm given a life that meanders and goes nowhere - months of aimlessness, nights of misery!
4 I go to bed and think, 'How long till I can get up?' I toss and turn as the night drags on - and I'm fed up!
5 I'm covered with maggots and scabs. My skin gets scaly and hard, then oozes with pus.
6 My days come and go swifter than the click of knitting needles, and then the yarn runs out - an unfinished life!
7 "God, don't forget that I'm only a puff of air! These eyes have had their last look at goodness.
8 And your eyes have seen the last of me; even while you're looking, there'll be nothing left to look at.
9 When a cloud evaporates, it's gone for good; those who go to the grave never come back.
10 They don't return to visit their families; never again will friends drop in for coffee.
11 "And so I'm not keeping one bit of this quiet, I'm laying it all out on the table; my complaining to high heaven is bitter, but honest.

Job 7:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 7

In this chapter Job goes on to defend himself in an address to God; as that he had reason to complain of his extraordinary afflictions, and wish for death; by observing the common case of mankind, which he illustrates by that of an hireling, Job 7:1; and justifies his eager desire of death by the servant and hireling; the one earnestly desiring the shadow, and the other the reward of his work, Job 7:2; by representing his present state as exceeding deplorable, even worse than that of the servant and hireling, since they had rest at night, when he had none, and were free from pain, whereas he was not, Job 7:3-5; by taking notice of the swiftness and shortness of his days, in which he had no hope of enjoying any good, Job 7:6,7; and so thought his case hard; and the rather, since after death he could enjoy no temporal good: and therefore to be deprived of it while living gave him just reason of complaint, Job 7:8-11; and then he expostulates with God for setting such a strict watch upon him; giving him no ease night nor day, but terrifying him with dreams and visions, which made life disagreeable to him, and death more eligible than that, Job 7:12-16; and represents man as unworthy of the divine regard, and below his notice to bestow favours on him, or to chastise him for doing amiss, Job 7:17,18; and admitting that he himself had sinned, yet he should forgive his iniquity, and not bear so hard upon him, and follow him with one affliction after another without intermission, and make him the butt of his arrows; but should spare him and let him alone, or however take him out of the world, Job 7:19-21.

Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.