[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;
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.