Bible Commentaries
Job 7

Verses 1-21

JOB - CHAPTER 7

Verses 1-21:

Job’s Response to Eliphaz Continues

Verse 1 inquires if there is not an appointed or restricted time to man on the earth, to complete his warfare, his struggles. The implication is that there is. Every man has a "measure" of days, Psalms 39:4. Every good soldier rejoices when his days are over, as expressed 1 Timothy 1:18; 2 Timothy 2:3; 2 Timothy 4:7-8. His days are as those of an hireling. His labors end and payday comes, Job 14:5; Job 14:13-14.

Verses 2, 3 declare that just as the servant earnestly longed for or panted for the lengthening evening shadows, when rest from labor and pay was received; And as the hireling anticipated the reward or pay for his work, so did Job endure months of vanity, emptiness in afflictions and wearisome nights that were appointed to him, as an heritage, until his hour of reward, beyond death, Psalms 39:5; Hebrews 9:27; 1 Corinthians 3:8; Revelation 2:10.

Verse 4 relates that when Job lay down he would ask just how long would it take the night to take flight, to be gone, as another night of suffering. He stated that he was full of tossings to and fro, through the long restless night to the dawning of the new day, Deuteronomy 28:67; Job 17:12.

Verse 5 further discloses that Job’s flesh was infested with crawling, tortuous maggots, similar to those that ate Herod, Isaiah 14:11; Acts 12:23. Clods of crusty dirt formed over his body, drying, sealing then breaking forth with loathsome corruption, Isaiah 14:11; Job 17:14; Job 19:25-26.

Verses 6-8 describe the brevity and temporality of earthly life. It is compared with the swift flash of the "weaver’s shuttle," while the weaver is at work; It is soon cut off without hope, like the bolt of cloth from the weaver’s shuttle, Isaiah 38:12; See also Job 9:25; Job 16:22; Job 17:11; Psalms 90:5; Psalms 102:11; Psalms 103:15; Psalms 144:4; Isaiah 40:6; James 4:14. Then Job adds that his life like the wind, so transient, is here one moment, and gone in another, to behold men with his eyes no more, Psalms 78:39; Psalms 89:47. Then, addressing the Lord, Job witnessed that though men should soon see him no more, the eyes of the caring, living God were upon him, even when he should decay in death and exist no more among men. Such statements of faith and hope of life beyond death punctuate the testimony of Job again and again, Job 14:14-15; Job 19:25; Psalms 139:8; 2 Corinthians 5:1.

Verse 9 asserts that as the clouds evaporate or vanish, so does the body (material part of man) that goes to the grave. It will be seen no more in its form of corruption and putrefaction after the grave. When the clouds vanish or evaporate, their elements do not cease to exist. They change their form in passing away to return in rain, snow, or sleet, to bless the earth. So it is with mortal bodies that shall one day put on immortality, Hosea 2:5; John 5:28-29; Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 15:40-44; 1 Corinthians 15:52-58.

Verses 10, 11 express the anguish of Job’s soul as he witnessed that the dead would no more return to their earthly residences and those there would know him no more. Thus he complained in bitterness of soul that his life seemed gone at what seemed to him should have been the very high noon of his life, Proverbs 27:1.

Verse 12 relates Job’s complaint rhetorically, "I am not a sea, or a whale, that you must set a watch, sentinel, or guard over me as you do the sea-shore to protect the angry, frothing sea, or the watchman that watches the destroying, vicious crocodile," am I? Just why has the Lord fenced Job in with this woeful affliction, after all his other grievous losses, is his frustration cry, Jeremiah 5:22; Daniel 7:2; Isaiah 27:1.

Verses 13, 14 reply to Eliphaz’s scary dream, inquiring just why, for what purpose he related such a dream, to scare or terrify him with a vision, when he sought comfort and sleep upon his couch, by day and night, Job 4:12-17.

Verse 15 witnesses that Job would welcome being strangled to death more than continuing to live in his miserable, infectious state, with maggots crawling in the sores of his flesh, day and night, 2 Corinthians 5:5-9; Job 19:20; Psalms 35:10.

Verse 16 relates Job’s statement that he "loathed it," his life, in. the infection of sores that plagued him. It was much as Jonah’s self-pity at the gourd vine scene of Ninevah, John 4:8. See also Genesis 27:46; Job 10:1. He cried to be "let alone," receive no further torment from Eliphaz or his so-called friends, declaring that his days were weighty or empty, Psalms 39:13; Psalms 62:9; Psalms 78:33; Ecclesiastes 6:10; Job 10:20.

Verse 17 recounts Job’s question of who and what man is, that God should magnify him, show such care for him, even to send judgment upon him, to such a plight as he endured. If man understood all the thoughts and ways of God, he would be equal to Him, See Psalms 8:4; Psalms 44:3; Isaiah 55:9-11; Hebrews 2:6.

Verse 18 adds "that thou should visit him every morning, and try or test him every moment?" It is the Lord’s mercies, not our trials, that are new every morning, La 3:23. He cares for His own every morning, as the shepherd counts his flock each day as they go out and back into the fold, then cares for them every moment, day and night.

Verse 19 inquires just how long the Lord will depart from him, from afflicting him; or will he not turn away from permitting him to be afflicted even long enough for him to swallow down his spittle, meaning long enough for him to take a deep breath of fresh air, Job 9:18.

Verse 20 is a confession of Job that he has sinned, but inquires just why the Lord has set him as a mark or point of attack, assailing him with pain and suffering, La 3:12; See also Psalms 36:6; Nehemiah 9:6; Psalms 11:4; Psalms 33:13; Psalms 34:15; Proverbs 15:3; Hebrews 4:13; Revelation 2:23.

Verse 21 is a request of Job for the Lord "now," or very soon, to pardon his transgression, take away his iniquity, rather than relentlessly punish him. He adds that unless the Lord will do so he will be soon dead, asleep in the dust, unfound among the living in the morning, when men went among the sick early in the morning to remove dead bodies, La 3:22, 23.