Albert Barnes Commentary Job 7

Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? (Job 7:1a) – The margin gives "or, warfare." The Hebrew word used here, צבא (tsâbâ'), properly means a host or an army (see the notes on Isaiah 1:9); then it means warfare, or the hard service of a soldier (see notes on Isaiah 40:2). In this context, it means that man on earth is enlisted, so to speak, for a specific duration.

He had a certain and definite hard service to perform, which he must continue to discharge until he was relieved by death. It was a service of hazard, like the life of a soldier, or of toil, like that of one who had been hired for a certain time and anxiously looked for the period of his release. The object of Job in introducing this remark is evidently to vindicate himself for the wish to die which he had expressed.

Job maintains that it is as natural and proper for a man in his circumstances to wish to be released by death, as it is for a soldier to desire that his term of service might be accomplished, or for a weary servant to long for the shades of the evening.

The Septuagint renders the verse, “Is not the life of man upon the earth peirateerion?” – explained by Schleusner and rendered by Good as meaning a band of pirates. The Vulgate renders it militia—military service.

The sense is that the life of man was like the hard service of a soldier, and this is one of the points of justification to which Job referred in Job 6:29-30. He maintains that it is not improper to desire that such a service should close.

The days of an hireling (Job 7:1b) – This refers to a man who has been hired to perform some service with a promise of a reward, and who is not unnaturally impatient to receive it. Job maintained that such was the life of man. He was looking forward to a reward, and it was not unnatural or improper to desire that this reward should be given to him.

As a servant earnestly desires - Margin, gapes after. The word here שׁאף shâ'aph means to breathe hard, to pant, to blow, and then to desire earnestly.

The shadow - This may refer either to a shade in the intense heat of the day or to the night. Nothing is more grateful in Eastern countries, when the sun pours down intensely on burning sands, than the shadow of a tree or the shade of a projecting rock.

The editor of the Pictorial Bible on this verse remarks, “We think we can say, that next to water, the greatest and deepest enjoyment we could ever realize in the hot climates of the East was, when on a journey, any circumstance of the road brought us for a few minutes under some shade.

Its reviving influence upon the bodily frame, and consequently upon the spirits, is inconceivable by one who has not had some experience of the kind. Often also during the halt of a caravan in the open air, when the writer has been enabled to secure a station for repose under the shelter of a rock or of an old wall, has his own exultation and strong sense of luxurious enjoyment reminded him of this and other passages of Scripture, in which shade is mentioned as a thing panted for with intense desire.”

Probably here, however, the reference is to the shades of night, the time when darkness falls upon the earth, and the servant is released from his toil. It is common in all languages to speak of night as enveloped with shadows. Thus, Virgil, Aeneid 4.7:

Humentemque aurora polo dimoverat umbram.

The meaning of Job is, that as a servant looked impatiently for the shades of the evening when he would be dismissed from toil, so he longed for death.

And as a hireling looks - That is, he anxiously desires his work to be finished and expects the reward of his labors. So Job looked to the reward of a life of toil and piety. Is there not here an undoubted reference to a future state? Is it not manifest that Job looked to some recompense in the future world, as real and as sure, as a hired servant looks for the reward of his toils when his work is done?

So am I made to possess - The Hebrew is: "I am made to inherit." The meaning is that such sad and melancholy seasons were now his only portion.

Months of vanity - That is, months which were destitute of comfort; in other words, months of affliction.

How long his trials had continued before this, we have no means of ascertaining. There is no reason, however, to suppose that his bodily sufferings came upon him all at once, or that they had not continued for a considerable period. It is quite probable that his expressions of impatience were the result not only of the intensity, but also the continuance of his sorrows.

And wearisome nights are appointed to me - Even his rest was disturbed. The time when care is usually forgotten and toil ceases, was to him a period of sleepless anxiety and distress - עמל ‛ âmâl. The Septuagint renders it, "nights of pangs" (νύκτες ὀδυνῶν nuktes odunōn), expressing accurately the sense of the Hebrew. The Hebrew word עמל ‛ âmâl is commonly applied to intense sorrow, to trouble and pain of the severest kind, such as the pains of parturition; see the notes on Isaiah 53:11.

When I lie down - I find no comfort and no rest on my bed. My nights are long, and I am impatient for them to pass, and it is equally so with the day. This is a description that all who have been laid on a bed of pain can understand.

And the night be gone - The margin says, “evening be measured.” Herder translates this as, “the night is irksome to me.” The word translated as “night” (ערב ‛ereb) properly means the early part of the night, until the dawn follows. Thus, in Genesis 1:5, “And the evening (ערב ‛ereb) and the morning were the first day.” Here it means the portion of the night that is before the dawning of the aurora—the night. The word translated as “be gone” (and in the margin as “be measured”) (מדּד mı̂ddad) has been translated in various ways.

The verb מדד mâdad means to stretch, to extend, or to measure. According to Gesenius, the form of the word used here is a noun meaning “flight,” and the sense is, “When shall be the flight of the night?” He derives it from נדד nâdad: to move, to flee, to flee away. So Rosenmuller explains it. The expression is poetic, meaning, “When shall the night be gone?”

I am full of tossings to and fro - (נדדים nâdûdı̂ym). This is a word from the same root. It means uneasy motions, restlessness. He found no quiet repose on his bed.

Unto the dawning - נשׁף nesheph—from נשׁף nâshaph, meaning to breathe. Hence, it refers to the evening twilight because the breezes blow, or seem to breathe; and then it also means the morning twilight, the dawn. Dr. Stock translates it as, “until the morning breeze.”

My flesh is clothed with worms - Job here undoubtedly refers to his diseased state, and this is one of the passages by which we may learn the nature of his complaint; compare the notes at Job 2:7. There is reference here to the worms which are produced in ulcers and in other forms of disease. Michaelis remarks that such effects are produced often in the elephantiasis. Bochart, Hierozoicon, Part II, Book IV, chapter 26, pages 619–621, has abundantly proved that such effects occur in disease, and has mentioned several instances where death resulted from this cause; compare Acts 12:23. The same thing would often happen—and particularly in hot climates—if it were not for the closest care and attention in keeping running sores as clean as possible.

And clods of dust - Accumulated on the ulcers which covered his whole body. This effect would be almost unavoidable. Dr. Good renders this, “worms and the imprisoning dust,” and supposes that the image is taken from the grave, and that the idea in the whole passage is that of one who is “dead while he lives;” that is, of one who is undergoing putrefaction before he is buried. But the more common and correct interpretation is that which refers it to the accumulated filth attending a loathsome disease; see Job 2:8. The word which is used here and rendered “clods” (גוּשׁ gûsh) means a lump of earth or dust.

Septuagint, βώλακας γῆς bōlakas gēs; Vulgate, sordes pulveris, “clods of earth.” The whole verse is rendered by the Septuagint, My body swarms with the putrefaction of worms, and I moisten the clods of earth with the ichor (ἰχῶρος ichōros) of ulcers.

My skin is broken - רגע râga‛. This word means to make afraid, to terrify, and then to shrink together from fear, or to contract. Here it means, according to Gesenius, that “the skin came together and healed, and then broke forth again and ran with pus.”

Jerome renders it, aruit – dries up. Herder, “my skin becomes closed.” Dr. Good, “my skin becomes stiff;” and carries out his idea that the reference here is to the stiffened and rigid appearance of the body after death.

Doederlin supposes that it refers to the rough and horrid appearance of the skin in the elephantiasis, when it becomes rigid and frightful by the disease. Jarchi renders it, cutis mea corrugata – my skin is rough, or filled with wrinkles. This seems to me to be the idea: that it was filled with wrinkles and corrugations; that it became stiff, fixed, frightful, and was such as to excite terror in the beholder.

And become loathsome - Gesenius, “runs again with pus.” The word here used מאס mâ'as means properly to reject, scorn, despise. A second sense which it has is, to melt, to run like water; Psalms 58:7, Let them melt away (ימאסוּ yîmâ'asû) as waters. But the usual meaning is to be preferred here. His skin became abhorrent and loathsome in the sight of others.