Job 7:6-16

6 "My days go by faster than a weaver's tool, and they come to an end without hope.
7 Remember, God, that my life is only a breath. My eyes will never see happy times again.
8 Those who see me now will see me no more; you will look for me, but I will be gone.
9 As a cloud disappears and is gone, people go to the grave and never return.
10 They will never come back to their houses again, and their places will not know them anymore.
11 "So I will not stay quiet; I will speak out in the suffering of my spirit. I will complain because I am so unhappy.
12 I am not the sea or the sea monster. So why have you set a guard over me?
13 Sometimes I think my bed will comfort me or that my couch will stop my complaint.
14 Then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions.
15 My throat prefers to be choked; my bones welcome death.
16 I hate my life; I don't want to live forever. Leave me alone, because my days have no meaning.

Job 7:6-16 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.

Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.