Albert Barnes Commentary Job 7:15

"So that my soul chooseth strangling, And death rather than [these] my bones." — Job 7:15 (ASV)

So that my soul - This means "so that I"; the soul is used here to represent the person himself.

Chooses strangling - Dr. Good translates this as “suffocation.” He supposes that Job is alluding to the oppressive breathing caused by what is commonly called a nightmare, meaning Job would prefer the sensation of suffocation experienced at such a time over the terrible images in his mind. Herder translates "strangling" as death. Jerome uses suspendium. The Septuagint says, You separate (ἀπαλλάξεις apallaceis) my life from my spirit, and my bones from death; however, it is impossible now to determine what idea they attached to this.

The Syriac translates it as, You choose my soul from perdition, and my bones from death. The word translated as strangling (מחנק machănaq) comes from חנק chânaq—meaning to be narrow, tight, or close. It then means to strangle or to throttle (Nahum 2:12; 2 Samuel 17:23). In this context, it means death. Job intends to say that he would prefer even the most violent kind of death to the life he was then leading. I see no evidence that the idea Dr. Good suggested is found in this passage.

And death rather than my life - The marginal note, as in Hebrew, reads "bones." There has been great variety in the interpretation of this part of the verse. Herder translates it as, death rather than this frail body. Rosenmuller and Noyes translate it as, death rather than my bones; that is, Job preferred death to the emaciated body he then had—to the wasted skeleton that was all that remained of him. This is probably the true meaning.

Job was a sufferer in body and soul. His flesh was wasting away, his body was covered with ulcers, and his mind was tormented by anxieties. By day he had no peace, and at night he was terrified by alarming visions and specters; and he preferred death in any form to such a condition.