Job Continues: My Life Has No Hope
1 Job excused his desire of death. 12 He complained of his own restlessness, 17 and God’s watchfulness.
Job 7:1 “Do not mortals have hard service on earth? Are not their days like those of hired laborers?
Job’s description of life stands in marked contrast with Eliphaz’ fascinating picture in ch. 5:17–27. Job maintains that it is as natural and proper for man in his circumstances to wish to be released by death as for a soldier to desire that his term of service be accomplished (see Job 14:14; Isa. 40:2).
Job 7:2 Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired laborer waiting to be paid As a servant looks impatiently for the shades of the evening, when he will be dismissed from toil, so Job fervently longs for death.
Job 7:3 so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me.
Job could not fill the long months with any good. This does not necessarily imply that his illness had been in progress for months. He may have looked forward to the days ahead.
Job 7:4 When I lie down I think, ‘How long before I get up?’ The night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.
Anyone who has suffered serious illness can appreciate Job’s reference to his long, seemingly interminable nights of pain and restlessness.
Job 7:5 My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering.
Worms breed in his sores. Crusts form over the eruptions. The ulcers break open and a discharge of a loathsome character occurs.
Job 7:6 “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope.
He does not here refer so much to the rapidity with which his days were passing away as to the fact that they would soon be gone. Without hope. Job does not share the hope that Eliphaz holds out (ch. 5:17–27). He sees no hope but death.
Job 7:7 Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again.
Remember. Here begins an address to God that continues to the end of the present speech (v. 21). Job lifts his eyes and his heart to his Maker and urges reasons why God should terminate the life of His despairing servant.
Job 7:8 The eye that now sees me will see me no longer; you will look for me, but I will be no more.
Note the repetition of this word in vs. 7 and 8. First, Job mentions “mine eye,” then “the eye of him that has seen me,” referring to his fellow men, then “thine eyes,” in reference to the eyes of God.
I will no more. Literally, “nothingness of me.” Job is speaking of death (see v. 9).
Job 7:9 As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so one who goes down to the grave does not return.
Job compares death to the disappearance of a cloud in the sky as its moisture is absorbed into the air about it. Grave. Heb. she’ol. The figurative realm of the dead, where the dead are pictured as sleeping and resting together (see ch. 3:13–19).
Does not return. This statement is not a denial of the resurrection. Its meaning is restricted by the observation of the next verse. The dead rise no more to return to their former households. Even taken independently the Hebrew words translated “shall come up no more” do not express finality, but simply incomplete action.
Job 7:10 He will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more.
Job 7:11 “Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Job’s suffering is so intense that he feels justified in uninhibited complaint (see Ps. 55:2; 77:3; 142:2).
Job 7:12 Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that you put me under guard?
Job asks, Am I like a raging and tumultuous sea that it is necessary to restrain and confine me? Am I like a dangerous monster that has to be kept under guard?
Job 7:13 When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint,
Job 7:14 even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions,
When Job seeks comfort in rest and sleep, he is traumatised by his dreams. He places upon God the responsibility for this condition.
Job 7:15 so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine.
It is possible that a sense of choking may have accompanied Job’s affliction. At any rate, he considers strangling as more desirable than life. My life. Literally, “my bones,” an expression probably equivalents to “a living skeleton.”
Job 7:16 I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning.
Let me alone. These were audacious words for any mortal to speak to God. Job is in the depth of despair. He feels that the Almighty has singled him out and pleads for freedom from divine interference.
How different he would have felt if he could have looked behind the scenes and could have seen his heavenly Father looking down on him with tender pity and steadfast love. God was suffering with His servant, but Job did not know it. Job considers his life as of little value. He was unable to appreciate his tremendous worth in the sight of God.
Job 7:17 “What is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so
The psalmist uses similar words in a framework that extols God’s love and care (Ps. 8:3–8). Job, in his suffering, distorts the unsleeping care of God into unwelcome meddling. Job is saying in effect to God, “Why do you annoy man with your tests and trials? Look the other way. Give me time to ‘swallow down my spittle’” (Job 7:19).
Unseemly words, yet God did not strike Job down for his audacious declaration.
Job 7:18 that you examine them every morning and test them every moment?
Job 7:19 Will you never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant?
Job 7:20 If I have sinned, what have I done to you, you who sees everything we do? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you?
If I have sinned. Probably not a confession, but intended in the sense of, “though I have sinned,” or “granted I have sinned.
Why make me your “target”? Jewish tradition claims that this was the original meaning, but that it was corrected by the scribes because it seemed impious.
Job 7:21 Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more.”
Job feels that in a short time he will die—“sleep in the dust”—therefore why should not God pardon him? What advantage is it to God to torment him, when life has so nearly ebbed away? If pardon does not come speedily, it will be too late.
Job’s speech, recorded in chs. 6 and 7, exhibits certain perils: (1) The danger of too much emphasis on the vanity of life. Men should remember their great value in the sight of God. (2) The danger of unrestrained expression of emotion. When Job removed his inhibitions, he complained in bitterness, questioned with irreverence, accused with rashness, and begged with impatience. (3) The tendency of the human heart, when blinded by grief or agitated by passion, to misconstrue God’s dealings. (4) The certainty that good men may have much of the old unrenewed nature in them lying unsuspected until occasion calls it forth. One would hardly have anticipated Job’s outburst of passion.