Albert Barnes Commentary Job 7:17

"What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him, And that thou shouldest set thy mind upon him," — Job 7:17 (ASV)

What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? That you should make him great, or that you should regard him as of so great importance as to fix your eye attentively upon him. The idea here is that it was unworthy of the character of so great a being as God to bestow so much time and attention on a creature so insignificant as man; and especially that man could not be of so much importance that it was necessary for God to watch all his defects with vigilance, and take special pains to mark and punish all his offenses. This question might be asked in another sense, and with another view.

Man is so insignificant compared with God that it may be asked: Why should He so carefully provide for his needs? Why make so ample provision for his welfare? Why institute measures so amazing and so wonderful for his recovery from sin? The answers to all these questions must be substantially the same.

1. It is a part of the great plan of a condescending God. No insect is so small as to be beneath His notice. On the humblest and feeblest microorganisms, care is bestowed in their formation and support as if God had nothing else to regard or provide for.
2. Man is of importance. He has an immortal soul, and the salvation of that soul is worth all that it costs, even when it costs the blood of the Son of God.
3. A creature who sins, always makes himself of importance. The murderer has an importance in the view of the community which he never had before. All good citizens become interested to arrest and punish him. There is no more certain way for a man to give consequence to himself than to violate the laws and subject himself to punishment. An offending member of a family has an importance which he had not before, and all eyes are turned to him with deep interest. So it is with man—a part of the great family of God.
4. A sufferer is a being of importance, and man as a sufferer is worthy of the notice of God. However feeble anyone's powers may be, or humble his rank, yet if he suffers—and especially if he is likely to suffer forever—he at once becomes an object of the highest importance. Such is man: a sufferer here and liable to eternal pain hereafter. Therefore, the God of mercy has intervened to visit him and to devise a way to rescue him from his sorrows and from eternal death. The Syriac renders this, “What is man, that you should destroy him?”—but the Hebrew means “to magnify him, to make him great or of importance.”

That thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? Not with affection, but to punish him—for this is what the expression evidently means in this context. The phrase itself might mean, “Why should you love him?”—implying that there was nothing in a creature so insignificant that could render him a proper object of divine regard. But as used here by Job, it means, “Why do you fix your attention upon him so closely—marking the slightest offense and seeming to take a special pleasure in inflicting pain and torture?” The Psalmist makes use of almost the same language, and not improbably copied it from this, though he employs it in a somewhat different sense. As used by him, it means that it was wonderful that the God who made the heavens should condescend to notice a creature so insignificant as man.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers;
The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
And the son of man, that thou visitest him: (Psalms 8:3–4).