Job 10:20

20 Whether not the fewness of my days shall be ended in (a) short time? Therefore suffer thou me, that I bewail a little (more) my sorrow,

Job 10:20 Meaning and Commentary

Job 10:20

[Are] not my days few?
&c.] They are so, the days of every man are but few; see ( Job 14:1 ) ( Psalms 90:10 ) ; the remainder of Job's days were but few; considering the course of nature, and especially the sore afflictions he had on him, it could not be thought his days on earth were many; in all likelihood, according to human probability, he had but a few days to live: or "are not my days a small little thing" ^F7? it is as an hand's breadth, as nothing before God, ( Psalms 39:5 ) ;

cease [then];
that is, from afflicting him; since he had so short a time to live, he requests there might be some intermission of his trouble; that he might have some intervals of comfort and refreshment, that not all his days, which were so few, should be spent in grief and sorrow: some connect this with the preceding clause, and which is most agreeable to the accents, "shall not the fewness of my days cease" ^F8? I have but a few days, and these few days will soon cease; therefore give me some respite from my afflictions; and so the Targum,

``are not my days swift and ceasing?''

[and] let me alone;
do not follow me with afflictions, or disturb and distress me with them; but take off thine hand, that I may have some rest and ease; see ( Job 7:10 ) ; or "put from me"; thine anger, as Kimchi, or thine army, as Junius and Tremellius; or thy camp, as Cocceius; that is, decamp from me, remove thy troops, the changes and war that are against me, by which I am besieged, surrounded, and straitened; let me be delivered from them:

that I may take comfort a little;
that he might have some breathing time, some respite from his troubles, some refreshment to his spirit, some reviving to his fainting soul, some renewing of strength, before he departed this life; see ( Psalms 39:13 ) ; so Aben Ezra and Gersom render it: "that I may be strengthened"; or that his heart might gather strength.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 (ymy jem alh) "nonne parum dies mei?" Montanus, Bolducius, Schmidt; "paucum quid", Vatablus, Beza, Mercerus.
F8 "An non param, vel paucitas dierum meorum cessabit?" Cocceius; "annon pauxillulum dierum meorum deficiet?" Schultens.

Job 10:20 In-Context

18 Lord, why hast thou led me out of the womb? Why not had I erst been wasted, that an eye had not seen me (Why had I not erstwhile been destroyed, so that no eye had seen me).

19 (And so) That I had been, as if I were not, and were translated, either borne over, from the womb to the sepulchre (from the womb unto the tomb, or the grave).

20 Whether not the fewness of my days shall be ended in (a) short time? Therefore suffer thou me, that I bewail a little (more) my sorrow,

21 before that I go, and turn not again, to the dark land, and (be) covered with the darkness of death, (before that I go to the dark land, and am covered with the darkness of death, never to return,)

22 to the land of wretchedness, and of darknesses; where is shadow of death, and none order, but everlasting hideousness dwelleth. (yea, to the land of wretchedness, and of darkness; where there is only the shadow of death, and no order, and everlasting hideousness dwelleth there.)