Job 10:20

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹⁴ If I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity. ¹⁵ If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still shall not lift up my head, Being filled with disgrace, And conscious of my affliction. ¹⁶ If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me. ¹⁷ You renew your witnesses against me, And increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me. ¹⁸ "'Why, then, have you brought me forth out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me. ¹⁹ I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. ²⁰ Aren't my days few? Cease then, Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort, ²¹ Before I go where I shall not return from, To the land of darkness and of the shadow of death; ²² The land dark as midnight, Of the shadow of death, without any order, Where the light is as midnight.'"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

my days few: Job 7:6, Job 7:7, Job 7:16, Job 8:9, Job 9:25, Job 9:26, Job 14:1, Psalms 39:5, Psalms 103:15, Psalms 103:16

cease: Job 7:17-21, Job 13:21, Psalms 39:13

Reciprocal: Job 6:11 - What Job 14:6 - Turn

Cross-References

Genesis 10:1
Now this is the history of the generations of the sons of Noah and of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.

Genesis 10:6
The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.

Genesis 10:9
He was a mighty hunter before Yahweh. Therefore it is said, "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before Yahweh."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

[Are] not my days few?.... They are so, the days of every man are but few; see Job 14:1; 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" g? 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" h? 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.

g הלא מעט ימי "nonne parum dies mei?" Montanus, Bolducius, Schmidt; "paucum quid", Vatablus, Beza, Mercerus. h "An non param, vel paucitas dierum meorum cessabit?" Cocceius; "annon pauxillulum dierum meorum deficiet?" Schultens.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Are not my days few? - My life is short, and hastens to a close. Let not then my afflictions be continued to the last moment of life, but let thine hand be removed, that I may enjoy some rest before I go hence, to return no more. This is an address to God, and the meaning is, that as life was necessarily so short, he asked to be permitted to enjoy some comfort before he should go to the land of darkness and of death; compare the note at Job 7:21. A somewhat similar expression occurs in Psalms 39:13 :

O spare me, that I may recover strength,

Before I go hence, and be no more.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 10:20. Are not my days few? — My life cannot be long; let me have a little respite before I die.