Job 7

Isn't a person made to do hard labor on earth? Aren't his days like the days of a hired worker?

1Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?

Note"Appointed time" translates a Hebrew word used for military service or a term of forced labor, a fixed tour of duty a man does not choose and cannot cut short. The "hired worker" is a day laborer, hired one day at a time and paid at nightfall, at the bottom of the economic ladder.

2He is like a slave longing for the shade at day's end, and like a hired worker waiting to be paid for his work.

2As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work:

NoteTwo everyday pictures of waiting. A slave working outdoors watches for the evening shadows that end the day's work; a day laborer watches for sunset because that is when his wages are handed over. Both want the day to be over, and neither can hurry it.

3That is how I have been handed months of emptiness, and nights of misery have been assigned to me.

3So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.

4When I lie down, I think, "When will I get up? When will this night be over?" I toss and turn until the sky grows light.

4When 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.

5My body is covered with worms and crusted with dirt. My skin cracks open and oozes.

5My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.

NoteThe "worms" are maggots, which breed in open untreated sores. Job is describing a real skin disease in physical detail, not speaking figuratively.

6My days move faster than the shuttle a weaver throws across the loom. They run out with no hope left in them.

6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

NoteA weaver's shuttle carries the crosswise thread and is thrown from hand to hand across the loom, the fastest-moving thing in an ordinary household. There is also a pun in the Hebrew that cannot be carried into English: the word for "hope" here is the same as the word for "thread." His days run out like thread off the spool.

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

7O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good.

NoteThe Hebrew word is "wind" or "breath", not a comment on the soul, but on duration. A breath is real, and then it is gone and cannot be gathered back.

8The eye that sees me now will not see me any longer. You will look for me, and I will not be here.

8The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.

9A cloud thins out and disappears. In the same way, the person who goes down to the place of the dead does not come back up.

9As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.

Note"The place of the dead" is Sheol, the underworld of Hebrew thought: the common destination of everyone who dies, pictured as a shadowy pit below the earth. In the language of this book it is not a place of reward or punishment, simply the place from which no one returns.

10He never returns to his house again. The place where he lived does not know him anymore.

10He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.

11So I will not hold my mouth shut. I will speak out of the pain inside me. I will complain out of the bitterness in my soul.

11Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

12Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that you have to post a guard over me?

12Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?

NoteIn the older stories of the region, the sea and the sea-monster (Hebrew *tannin*, a dragon or great deep-water creature) were forces of chaos that had to be defeated and then kept penned up under guard. Job's point is sarcastic: he is one sick man, not a cosmic monster needing a sentry posted over him.

13When I say to myself, "My bed will comfort me; lying down will ease my complaining,"

13When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;

14then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions.

14Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions:

15So I would rather be choked to death. I would take death over this body of mine.

15So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life.

NoteThe last phrase is literally "more than my bones", his wasted frame, his body as it now is. Some read it as "rather than these bones of mine," others as "rather than my sufferings"; the Hebrew is compressed and both readings are defensible.

16I hate my life. I do not want to live on and on. Leave me alone, because my days mean nothing.

16I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.

NoteThe Hebrew verb has no stated object. It can mean "I reject/loathe [my life]" or "I waste away." Translators have to choose; the original leaves both open.

17What is a human being, that you should make so much of him, and fix your attention on him,

17What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?

Note"What is a human being, that you should make so much of him" is a set formula of praise, the same words open a well-known psalm, where God's attention to small humanity is a wonder. Job turns the formula inside out: to be watched that closely is not an honor but a torment.

18and check on him every morning, and test him every moment?

18And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?

19How long before you look away from me? Will you not leave me alone long enough to swallow my own spit?

19How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?

NoteSwallowing your own spit is a proverbial expression for the shortest imaginable pause, the equivalent of "long enough to blink." Job is asking for even that much relief.

20I have sinned. What have I done to you, you who keep watch over people? Why have you set me up as your target, so that I am a burden to myself?

20I have 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?

Note"Set me as your target" is an archery image: a mark that arrows are aimed at. Also, ancient Jewish scribes recorded that this verse originally read "a burden to *you*," and that copyists changed it to "a burden to myself" because saying God found a man burdensome seemed irreverent. Translations still split between the two readings.

21And why do you not forgive the wrong I have done and take away my guilt? Soon I will lie down in the dust. You will look for me, but I will not be there.

21And 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 not be.

Note"You will look for me" continues the picture of God as a searcher who comes looking each morning (verse 18), but by then, Job says, there will be nothing left to find.