Albert Barnes Commentary Job 7:1

"Is there not a warfare to man upon earth? And are not his days like the days of a hireling?" — Job 7:1 (ASV)

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.