Bible Commentaries
Job 7

Verse 1

7:1 [Is there] not an appointed time to man upon earth? [are not] his days also like the days of an {a} hireling?

(a) Has not a hired servant some rest and ease? Then in this my continual torment I am worse than a hireling.

Verse 3

7:3 So am I made to possess {b} months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.

(b) My sorrow has continued from month to month, and I have looked for hope in vain.

Verse 5

7:5 My flesh is {c} clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.

(c) This signifies that his disease was rare and most horrible.

Verse 6

7:6 My days are swifter than {d} a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

(d) Thus he speaks in respect for the brevity of man’s life, which passes without hope of returning: in consideration of which he desires God to have compassion on him.

Verse 9

7:9 {e} [As] the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall {f} come up no [more].

(e) If you behold me in your anger I will not be able to stand in your presence.

(f) Shall no more enjoy this mortal life.

Verse 11

7:11 Therefore I will not {g} refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

(g) Seeing I can by no other means comfort myself I will declare my grief in words, and thus he speaks as one overcome with grief of mind.

Verse 12

7:12 [Am] I a sea, {h} or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?

(h) Am I not a poor wretch? Why do you need to lay so much pain on me?

Verse 14

7:14 Then thou scarest me {i} with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions:

(i) So that I can have no rest, night or day.

Verse 15

7:15 So that my soul {k} chooseth strangling, [and] death rather than my life.

(k) He speaks as one overcome with sorrow, and not of judgment, or of the examination of his faith.

Verse 16

7:16 I loathe [it]; I would not live alway: {l} let me alone; for my days [are] vanity.

(l) Seeing my term of life is so short, let me have some rest and ease.

Verse 17

7:17 What [is] man, that thou {m} shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?

(m) Seeing that man of himself is so vile, why do you give him that honour to contend against him? Job uses all kinds of persuasion with God, that he might stay his hand.

Verse 20

7:20 I have {n} sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?

(n) After all temptations faith steps forth and leads Job to repentance: yet it was not in such perfection that he could bridle himself from reasoning with God, because he still tried his faith.

Verse 21

7:21 And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I [shall] {o} not [be].

(o) That is, I will be dead.