Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Job 7:6

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Job 7:6. Swifter than a weaver's shuttle — The word ארג areg signifies rather the weaver than his shuttle. And it has been doubted whether any such instrument were in use in the days of Job. Dr. Russell, in his account of Aleppo, shows that though they wove many kinds of curious cloth, yet no shuttle was used, as they conducted every thread of the woof by their fingers. That some such instrument as the shuttle was in use from time immemorial, there can be no doubt: and it is certain that such an instrument must have been in the view of Job, without which the figure would lose its expression and force. In almost every nation the whole of human existence has been compared to a web; and the principle of life, through the continual succession of moments, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, to a thread woven through that web. Hence arose the fable of the Parcae or Fates, called also the Destinies or Fatal Sisters. They were the daughters of Erebus and Nox, darkness and night; and were three in number, and named Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Clotho held the distaff; Lachesis spun off the thread; and Atropos cut it off with her scissors, when it was determined that life should end. Job represents the thread of his life as being spun out with great rapidity and tenuity, and about to be cut off.

And are spent without hope. — Expectation of future good was at an end; hope of the alleviation of his miseries no longer existed. The hope of future good is the balm of life: where that is not, there is despair; where despair is, there is hell. The fable above mentioned is referred to by Virgil, Ecl. iv., ver. 46, but is there applied to time: -

Talia Secla, suis dixerunt, currite, fusis

Concordes stabili fatorum numine Parcae.

"The FATES, when they this happy thread have spun

Shall bless the sacred clue, and bid it smoothly run."

DRYDEN.

Isaiah uses the same figure, Isaiah 38:12: -

My life is cut off, as by the weaver:

He will sever me from the loom.

In the course of the day thou wilt finish my web.

LOWTH.

Coverdale translates thus: My dayes passe over more spedely then a weaver can weave out his webbe and are gone or I am awarre.

A fine example of this figure is found in the Teemour Nameh, which I shall give in Mr. Good's translation: -

"Praise be to God, who hath woven the web of human affairs in the loom of his will and of his wisdom, and hath made waves of times and of seasons to flow from the fountain of his providence into the ocean of his power." The simile is fine, and elegantly expressed.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Job’s reply to Eliphaz (6:1-7:21)

Eliphaz had rebuked Job for his impatient outburst. In reply Job acknowledges that God is the one who has sent this affliction, but he points out that if Eliphaz knew how great this suffering was he would understand why Job spoke rashly (6:1-4). An animal cries out only with good reason (for example, if it is hungry for food). Job likewise cries out only with good reason. His tormenting thoughts and Eliphaz’s useless words are to him like food that makes him sick (5-7). He still refuses to curse God, and wishes that God would give him his request and kill him, even if the death is painful (8-10). He cannot endure much more suffering; he is not made of rock or bronze (11-13)!
Job expected kindness from his friends but found none. They are like useless streams that overflow with destructive ice and snow in winter, but dry up in summer (14-17). They disappoint all who go to them expecting to find something beneficial (18-21). Job has not asked his friends for money or help, but he had hoped for sympathy (22-23).
Instead Job receives from his friends nothing but rebuke for his rash words. They make no effort to understand what despair must have caused him to make such an outburst. He accuses them of being heartless, and challenges them to show him plainly where he is wrong (24-27). He is being honest with them; in return he wants some understanding. At least he wants their acknowledgment that he can tell the difference between suffering that is deserved and suffering that is not (28-30).
Life for Job has no pleasure. He looks for death as a worker looks for wages or a slave looks for rest at the end of a hard day’s work. Day and night he has nothing but pain (7:1-5). Bitterly Job says that if God is going to help him, he should do it quickly, otherwise Job will soon be dead. It will then be too late for God to do anything (6-10).
This leads Job to an angry outburst addressed to God. Job asks why God must treat him with such severity, as if he were a wild monster (11-12). Tortured with pain by day and horrible dreams by night, he wants only to die (13-16). If God is so great, why doesn’t he leave Job alone? Job complains that God’s torment of him is so constant he does not even have time to swallow his spittle (17-19). He cannot understand why the mighty God is so concerned over the small sins of one person. Surely they are not such a burden. Surely God can forgive. If he does not hurry and forgive soon, it will be too late, because Job will be dead (20-21).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"Is there not a warfare for man upon earth? And are not his days like the days of an hireling? As a servant that earnestly desireth the shadow, And as a hireling that looketh for his wages: So am I made to possess months of misery, And wearisome nights are appointed to me. When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day. My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; My skin closeth up and breaketh out afresh. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, And are spent without hope. Oh remember that my life is a breath: Mine eye shall no more see good. The eye of him that seeth me shall behold me no more; Thine eyes shall be upon me, but I shall not be. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, So he that goeth down to Sheol shall come up no more. He shall return no more to his house, Neither shall his place know him anymore."

"Is there not a warfare for man upon the earth" We like Adam Clarke's explanation of this. "Human life is a state of probation, a time of exercise to train us for eternal life. It is a warfare; we are enlisted in the Church Militant and must accomplish our time of service."Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (London: T. Mason and G. Lane, 1837), Vol. III, p. 47. "And there is no discharge in that war" (Ecclesiastes 8:8).

"As the servant… desireth the shadow, and… an hireling looketh for his wages" Jamieson has the best comment on this we have seen. "If the servant longs for the evening when his wages are paid, why may not Job long for the close of his life of hard service, when he shall enter on his reward"?Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary, p. 315. This proves that Job did not, as many maintain, regard the grave as the end of everything, in spite of what he said later in Job 7:9.

"When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise" Paul Sherer explained Job's words in these verses thus: "What on earth was there to live for? With his days as long as empty months, and no shadow of the evening to bring him a little respite, there's nothing but tossings to and fro from dusk till dawn. Would God it were day! And every night, would God it were dawn"!Interpreter's Bible. Vol. III, p. 962.

"He that goeth down to Sheol shall come up no more" Job does not, in these words, abandon all hope after death, but merely states a well-known truth that the dead do not return to their houses, nor are they seen any more by their contemporaries.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle - That is, they are short and few. He does not here refer so much to the rapidity with which they were passing away as to the fact that they would soon be gone, and that he was likely to be cut off without being permitted to enjoy the blessings of a long life; compare the notes at Isaiah 38:12. The weaver’s shuttle is the instrument by which the weaver inserts the filling in the woof. With us few things would furnish a more striking emblem of rapidity than the speed with which a weaver throws his shuttle from one side of the web to the other. It would seem that such was the fact among the ancients, though the precise manner in which they wove their cloth, is unknown. It was common to compare life with a web, which was filled up by the successive days. The ancient Classical writers spoke of it as a web woven by the Fates. We can all feel the force of the comparison used here by Job, that the days which we live fly swift away. How rapidly is one after another added to the web of life! How soon will the whole web be filled up, and life be closed! A few more shoots of the shuttle and all will be over, and our life will be cut off, as the weaver removes one web from the loom to make way for another. How important to improve the fleeting moments, and to live as if we were soon to see the rapid shuttle flying for the last time!

And are spent without hope - Without hope of recovery, or of future happiness on earth. It does not mean that he had no hope of happiness in the world to come. But such were his trials here, and so entirely had his comforts been removed, that he had no prospect of again enjoying life.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 7

Is there not an appointed time to man upon the earth? are not his days also like the days of a hireling? As a servant earnestly desires the shadow ( Job 7:1-2 ),

That is, the shadow of the clock going down so that the shadow disappears. The servant waits for that because he has rest in the evening.

and as the hireling looks for the reward of his work: So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me. When I lie down, I say, When will I arise, and when will the night be gone? I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day. My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and it's become loathsome ( Job 7:2-5 ).

Now Job is telling about his horrible condition. Clods of dirt are clinging to the sores where they would begin to dry up and then the clods of dirt just clinging there and his flesh all over is just loathsome.

My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope. O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good. The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not. As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away; so is he that goeth down to the grave, he shall come up no more ( Job 7:6-9 ).

Job, you don't know what you're talking about.

He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more. Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I a sea, or a whale, that you set a watch over me? When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint; Then you come along and try to scare me with your dreams, and you terrify me through your visions: So that my soul chooses strangling, and death rather than my life. I loathe it; I would not live always: let me alone; for my days are empty. What is man, that you should magnify him? ( Job 7:10-17 )

Let me say at this point Job is turning from Eliphaz. He said it. He said, "Just leave me alone. I will choose to strangle on my own spittle than to hear any more of your words. Death is better than life." Now he turns to God in verse Job 7:17 . And addressing himself to God he says, "What is man that You should magnify him?"

and that you should set your heart upon him? ( Job 7:17 )

Interesting question. What is man that God should exalt man? And that God should set His heart upon man? I liked what Dave said this morning as he was leading us in singing. "And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Died He for me who caused His pain." He said he likes to sing that looking in the mirror. "Amazing love, how can it be? That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me." You ought to sing that looking in the mirror. Job is sort of looking in the mirror saying, "God, what is man that You should magnify him or that You should set Your heart upon him?" What am I that God should set His heart upon me? That God should desire my love. That God should desire my fellowship. That God should desire my responses to Him. It's the amazing mysteries of God and I cannot understand it.

And that you should visit him every morning, and try him every moment? How long wilt you not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle? I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee ( Job 7:18-20 ),

And, of course, Job's talking about, it's quite a picturesque phrase for death, "I began to just swallow my own spit. That's it. I can't cough it up any more. I'm gone. I have sinned; what shall I do unto Thee."

O thou preserver of men? why have you set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself? Why do you 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 not be ( Job 7:20-21 ).

So his complaint to God. "Why don't You forgive me, God? Why don't You relieve me of this? What's going on?" And Job is crying out of the misery. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Job’s miserable suffering 7:1-6

"The rest of Job’s speech is more like a soliloquy which turns into a remonstration against God Himself. His theme is once more the hard service that men have upon earth." [Note: Andersen, p. 134.]

"That Job speaks realistically about his pains here, in contrast to the unrealistic wish never to have been born that he uttered in his curse-lament (ch. 3), means that he is beginning to cope with his real situation." [Note: Hartley, p. 142.]

In this complaint (cf. ch. 3; Job 6:8-13), Job compared himself to a slave or hired servant, and concluded that he was in a worse condition. In Job 7:6, one Hebrew word occurs twice and reads, in English, first "shuttle" and then "hope." Job had run out of hope as a weaver’s shuttle runs out of thread.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

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" b 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;

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.

b δρομεως, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion in Drusius.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of a hireling?   2 As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work:   3 So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.   4 When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.   5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.   6 My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.

      Job is here excusing what he could not justify, even his inordinate desire of death. Why should he not wish for the termination of life, which would be the termination of his miseries? To enforce this reason he argues,

      I. From the general condition of man upon earth (Job 7:1; Job 7:1): "He is of few days, and full of trouble. Every man must die shortly, and every man has some reason (more or less) to desire to die shortly; and therefore why should you impute it to me as so heinous a crime that I wish to die shortly?" Or thus: "Pray mistake not my desires of death, as if I thought the time appointed of God could be anticipated: no, I know very well that that is fixed; only in such language as this I take the liberty to express my present uneasiness: Is there not an appointed time (a warfare, so the word is) to man upon earth? and are not his days here like the days of a hireling?" Observe, 1. Man's present place. He is upon earth, which God has given to the children of men,Psalms 115:16. This bespeaks man's meanness and inferiority. How much below the inhabitants of yonder elevated and refined regions is he situated! It also bespeaks God's mercy to him. He is yet upon the earth, not under it; on earth, not in hell. Our time on earth is limited and short, according to the narrow bounds of this earth; but heaven cannot be measured, nor the days of heaven numbered. 2. His continuance in that place. Is there not a time appointed for his abode here? Yes, certainly there is, and it is easy to say by whom the appointment is made, even by him that made us and set us here. We are not to be on this earth always, nor long, but for a certain time, which is determined by him in whose hand our times are. We are not to think that we are governed by the blind fortune of the Epicureans, but by the wise, holy, and sovereign counsel of God. 3. His condition during that continuance. Man's life is a warfare, and as the days of a hireling. We are every one of us to look upon ourselves in this world, (1.) As soldiers, exposed to hardship and in the midst of enemies; we must serve and be under command; and, when our warfare is accomplished, we must be disbanded, dismissed with either shame or honour, according to what we have done in the body. (2.) As day-labourers, that have the work of the day to do in its day and must make up their account at night.

      II. From his own condition at this time. He had as much reason, he thought, to wish for death, as a poor servant or hireling that is tired with his work has to wish for the shadows of the evening, when he shall receive his penny and go to rest, Job 7:2; Job 7:2. The darkness of the night is as welcome to the labourer as the light of the morning is to the watchman, Psalms 130:6. The God of nature has provided for the repose of labourers, and no wonder that they desire it. The sleep of the labouring man is sweet,Ecclesiastes 5:12. No pleasure more grateful, more relishing, to the luxurious than rest to the laborious; nor can any rich man take so much satisfaction in the return of his rent-days as the hireling in his day's wages. The comparison is plain, the application is concise and somewhat obscure, but we must supply a word or two, and then it is easy: exactness of language is not to be expected from one in Job's condition. "As a servant earnestly desires the shadow, so and for the same reason I earnestly desire death; for I am made to possess, c." Hear his complaint.

      1. His days were useless, and had been so a great while. He was wholly taken off from business, and utterly unfit for it. Every day was a burden to him, because he was in no capacity of doing good, or of spending it to any purpose. Et vitæ partem non attigit ullam--He could not fill up his time with any thing that would turn to account. This he calls possessing months of vanity,Job 7:3; Job 7:3. It very much increases the affliction of sickness and age, to a good man, that he is thereby forced from his usefulness. He insists not so much upon it that they are days in which he has no pleasure as that they are days in which he does not good; on that account they are months of vanity. But when we are disabled to work for God, if we will but sit still quietly for him, it is all one; we shall be accepted.

      2. His nights were restless, Job 7:3; Job 7:4. The night relieves the toil and fatigue of the day, not only to the labourers, but to the sufferers: if a sick man can but get a little sleep in the night, it helps nature, and it is hoped that he will do well, John 11:12. However, be the trouble what it will, sleep gives some intermission to the cares, and pains, and griefs, that afflict us; it is the parenthesis of our sorrows. But poor Job could not gain this relief. (1.) His nights were wearisome, and, instead of taking any rest, he did but tire himself more with tossing to and fro until morning. Those that are in great uneasiness, through pain of body or anguish of mind, think by changing sides, changing places, changing postures, to get some ease; but, while the cause is the same within, it is all to no purpose; it is but a resemblance of a fretful discontented spirit, that is ever shifting, but never easy. This made him dread the night as much as the servant desires it, and, when he lay down, to say, When will the night be gone? (2.) These wearisome nights were appointed to him. God, who determines the times before appointed, had allotted him such nights as these. Whatever is at any time grievous to us, it is good to see it appointed for us, that we may acquiesce in the event, not only as unavoidable because appointed, but as therefore designed for some holy end. When we have comfortable nights we must see them also appointed to us and be thankful for them; many better than we have wearisome nights.

      3. His body was noisome, Job 7:5; Job 7:5. His sores bred worms, the scabs were like clods of dust, and his skin was broken; so evil was the disease which cleaved fast to him. See what vile bodies we have, and what little reason we have to pamper them or be proud of them; they have in themselves the principles of their own corruption: as fond as we are of them now, the time may come when we may loathe them and long to get rid of them.

      4. His life was hastening apace towards a period, Job 7:6; Job 7:6. He thought he had no reason to expect a long life, for he found himself declining fast (Job 7:6; Job 7:6): My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, that is, "My time is now but short, and there are but a few sands more in my glass, which will speedily run out." Natural motions are more swift near the centre. Job thought his days ran swiftly because he thought he should soon be at his journey's end; he looked upon them as good as spent already, and he was therefore without hope of being restored to his former prosperity. It is applicable to man's life in general. Our days are like a weaver's shuttle, thrown from one side of the web to the other in the twinkling of an eye, and then back again, to and fro, until at length it is quite exhausted of the thread it carried, and then we cut off, like a weaver, our life,Isaiah 38:12. Time hastens on apace; the motion of it cannot be stopped, and, when it is past, it cannot be recalled. While we are living, as we are sowing (Galatians 6:8), so we are weaving. Every day, like the shuttle, leaves a thread behind it. Many weave the spider's web, which will fail them, Job 8:14; Job 8:14. If we are weaving to ourselves holy garments and robes of righteousness, we shall have the benefit of them when our work comes to be reviewed and every man shall reap as he sowed and wear as he wove.