Job 7:6

6 My days come and go swifter than the click of knitting needles, and then the yarn runs out - an unfinished life!

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 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Job 7:6 In-Context

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.