Job 7

Job 7 belongs to the first cycle of debate between Job and his three friends in the poetic section of the Book of Job. Earlier, in chapters 4–5, Eliphaz argued that no innocent person has ever perished and urged Job to seek God. Job began his rebuttal to his friends in chapter 6, and in chapter 7 he continues that reply before turning to address God directly. Bildad responds in chapter 8.

Outline

• Verses 1–6: Job compares human life to hard service and to the days of a hired laborer. He has endured months of misery and tosses through the night. His flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust, and his days pass more swiftly than a weaver's shuttle, without hope.
• Verses 7–10: He asks God to remember that his life is but a breath. He says that one who goes down to the grave vanishes like a cloud and never returns to his house.
• Verses 11–16: He resolves not to restrain his mouth but to voice his complaint. He asks whether he is a sea or a sea monster, that God should set a watch over him. Because God terrifies him with dreams and visions, he says he would rather die.
• Verses 17–21: He asks, "What is man," that God should examine and test him every day. He pleads to know why God has made him a target and why God does not pardon his transgression, saying that he will soon lie in the dust, and though God seeks him, he will be gone.

Key Verses

• Job 7:6 "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle": a classic image of the brevity of human life.
• Job 7:17 "What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him?": an inversion of the praise of Psalm 8, portraying God's attention as an unbearable burden.
• Job 7:20 "Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee?": a verse that reveals Job's readiness to question God directly about the reason for his suffering.

People and Places

• Job: The speaker of this chapter. He shifts from addressing his friends to praying to God.
• Eliphaz: The first of Job's three friends, who spoke to Job in chapters 4–5. Chapter 7 is part of Job's reply to him.
• Sheol: The place to which the dead descend, rendered "the grave" in the KJV of this passage. The Hebrew term is she'ol.

Interpretive Considerations

• Verse 17 closely resembles the wording of Psalm 8, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:4). For this reason, many interpreters hold that Job deliberately twists this hymn of praise. In the New Testament, Hebrews 2 quotes Psalm 8 and applies it to Christ, so the passages are sometimes read together.
• Interpretations differ on the phrase "shall come up no more" in verses 9–10. Some see it as reflecting the limited Old Testament understanding of the afterlife, while others read it as a poetic lament that the dead do not return to life on earth. The passage is often compared with Job's later confession in Job 19.
• The "sea monster" of verse 12 (KJV "whale") translates the Hebrew tannin, a term for a great creature of the sea. Some interpreters connect it with ancient Near Eastern sea imagery symbolizing chaos.
• The complaints in this chapter are recorded as Job's own words; God does not endorse them as they stand. Nevertheless, in Job 42 God assesses Job differently from his friends. For this reason, traditions place different emphases on how Job's laments should be understood.