Job 7:1-11

1 "Isn't a mortal's stay on earth difficult like a hired hand's daily [work]?

2 Like a slave, he longs for shade. Like a hired hand, he eagerly looks for his pay.

3 Likewise, I have been given months that are of no use, and I have inherited nights filled with misery.

4 When I lie down, I ask, 'When will I get up?' But the evening is long, and I'm exhausted from tossing about until dawn.

5 My body is covered with maggots and scabs. My skin is crusted over with sores; then they ooze.

6 My days go swifter than a weaver's shuttle. They are spent without hope.

7 Remember, my life is only a breath, and never again will my eyes see anything good.

8 The eye that watches over me will no longer see me. Your eye will look for me, but I'll be gone.

9 As a cloud fades away and disappears, so a person goes into the grave and doesn't come back again.

10 He doesn't come back home again, and his household doesn't recognize him anymore.

11 So I won't keep my mouth shut, but I will speak from the distress that is in my spirit and complain about the bitterness in my soul.

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.