John Gill Commentary Job 7

[Is there] not an appointed time to man upon earth ?
&c.] There is a set time for his coming into the world, for his continuance in it, and for his going out of it; this is to man "on earth", with respect to his being and abode here, not in the other world or future state: not in heaven; there is no certain limited time for man there, but an eternity; the life he will enter into is everlasting; the habitation, mansion, and house he will dwell in, are eternal; saints will be for ever with Christ, in whose presence are pleasures for evermore: nor in hell; the punishment there will be eternal, the fire will be unquenchable and everlasting, the smoke of the torments of the damned will ascend for ever and ever; but men's days and time on earth are but as a shadow, and soon gone; they are of the earth, earthly, and return unto it at a fixed appointed time, the bounds of which cannot be passed over: this is true of mankind in general, and of Job in particular; see (Job 14:1Job 14:5Job 14:14) (Ecclesiastes 3:1Ecclesiastes 3:2) ; the word "Enosh" ^F9 , here used, signifies, as is commonly observed, a frail, feeble, mortal man; Mr. Broughton renders it "sorrowful man"; as every man more or less is; even a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs, is attended with them, has an experience of them: this is the common lot of mankind; and if anything more than ordinary is inflicted upon them, they are not able to bear it; and these sorrows death at the appointed time puts an end to, which makes it desirable; now, seeing there is a set time for every man's life on earth, and there was for Job's, of which he was well assured; and, by all appearance of things, and by the symptoms upon him, this time was near at hand; therefore it should not be thought a criminal thing in him, considering his extraordinary afflictions, and which were intolerable, that he should so earnestly wish the time was come; though in his more serious thoughts he determined to wait for it:

some render the words, "is [there] not a warfare are for men on earth?" ^F11 the word being so rendered elsewhere, particularly in (Isaiah 40:2) ; every man's state on earth is a state of warfare; this is frequently said by the stoic philosophers {l}; even so is that of natural and unregenerate men, who are often engaged in war with one another, which arise from the lusts which war in their members; and especially with the people of God, the seed of the woman, between whom and the seed of the serpent there has been an enmity from the beginning; and with themselves, with the troubles of life, diseases of body, and various afflictions they have to conflict and grapple with: and more especially the life of good men here is a state of warfare, not only of the ministers of the word, or persons in public office, but of private believers; who are good soldiers of Christ, enter volunteers into his service, fight under his banners, and acquit themselves like men; these have many enemies to combat with; some within, the corruptions of hearts, which war against the spirit and law of their minds, which form a company of two armies in militating against each other; and others without, as Satan and his principalities and powers, the men of the world, false teachers, and the like: and these are properly accoutred for such service, having the whole armour of God provided for them; and have great encouragement to behave manfully, since they may be sure of victory, and of having the crown of righteousness, when they have fought the good fight, even though they are but frail, feeble, mortal, sinful men, but flesh and blood, and so not of themselves a match for their enemies; but they are more than so through the Lord being on their side, Christ being the Captain of their salvation, and the Spirit of God being in them greater than he that is in the world; and besides, it is only on earth this warfare is, and will soon be accomplished, the last enemy being death that shall be destroyed: now this being the common case of man, to be annoyed with enemies, and always at war with them, if, besides this, uncommon afflictions befall him, as was Job's case, this must make life burdensome, and death, which is a deliverance from them, desirable; this is his argument:

some choose to render the words, "is [there] not a servile condition for men on earth" ^F13 the word being used of the ministry and service of the Levites, (Numbers 4:3Numbers 4:4) ; all men by creation are or ought to be the servants of God; good men are so by the grace of God, and willingly and cheerfully serve him; and though the great work of salvation is wrought out by Christ for them, and the work of grace is wrought by the Spirit of Christ in them, yet they have work to do in their day and generation in the world, in their families, and in the house of God; and which, though weak and feeble in themselves, they are capable of doing, through Christ, his Spirit, power, and grace: and this is only on earth; in the grave there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge; when the night of death comes, no man can work; his service, especially his toilsome service, is at an end; and as it is natural for servants to wish for the night, when their labours end, Job thought it not unlawful in him to wish for death, which would put an end to his toils and labours, and when he should have rest from them:

[are not] his days also like the days of an hireling ?
the time for which a servant is hired, whether it be for a day or for a year, or more, it is a set time; it is fixed, settled, and determined in the agreement, and so are the days of man's life on earth; and the days of an hireling are few at most, the time for which he is hired is but short, and as the days of an hireling are days of toil, and labour, and sorrow, so are the days of men evil as well as few; his few days are full of trouble, (Genesis 47:9) (Job 14:1) ; all this and what follows is spoken to God, and not to his friends, as appears from (Job 7:7Job 7:8Job 7:14Job 7:17–21) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: (vwnal) "mortali", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "misero et aerumnoso homini", Michaelis.
• F11: (abu) "militia", Montanus, Tigurine version, Schultens; so V. L. Targum.
• F13: "Conditio servilis", Schmidt.

As a servant earnestly desires the shadow
Either the shadow of some great rock, tree, or hedge, or any shady place to shelter him from the heat of the sun in the middle of the day, which in those eastern countries is hot and scorching; and very burdensome and fatiguing it is for servants and labourers to work in fields and vineyards, or in keeping herds and flocks in such countries, and at such a time of the day; to which the allusion is in (Song of Solomon 1:7) (Isaiah 25:4) (32:2) (Matthew 20:12) . Therefore they "gape" for, or "pant" after some shady place for refreshment, as the word ^F14 used signifies;

or for the shadow of the evening, or the sun setting, when the longest shadow is cast, (Jeremiah 6:4) ; and when the work of a servant is ended, and he retires to his house for refreshment and rest: and since now such a shadow in either sense is desirable, and not unlawful to wish for, Job suggests it ought not to be charged as a crime in him, that he should importunately desire to be in the shadow of death, or in the grave, where the weary are at rest; or to have the night come on him, when he should cease from all his toil and labour, sorrows and pains:

and as an hireling looks for [the reward of] his work ;
or "for his work" ^F15 ; either for new work, what was set him being done, or rather for the finishing of it, that he might have rest from it; or for the reward, the hire due to him upon its completion; so Job intimates he desired death with the same view, that he might cease from his works, which should follow him, and when he should have the reward of the inheritance, not in a way of debt, but of grace: nor indeed is it sinful to look or have respect unto the recompence of reward, in order to engage to go through service more cheerfully, or to endure sufferings more patiently, see (Hebrews 11:26) ;

for though the hireling is an emblem of a self-righteous person, that works for life, and expects it as the reward of his work, and of false teachers and bad shepherds, that take the care of the flock for filthy lucre's sake, see (Luke 15:19) (John 10:12) ; yet hiring is sometimes used, in a good sense, of good men, that are hired and allured by gracious promises and divine encouragements to labour in the Lord's vineyard, and may expect their reward; see (Matthew 20:1Matthew 20:2Matthew 20:8) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F14: (Pavy) "anhelabit", Montanus, Bolducius; "anhelat", Beza, Tigurine version, Piscator, Cocceius, Schmidt, Schultens.
• F15: (wlep) "opus suum", Beza Montanus, Bolducius, Schmidt, Schultens.

So am I made to possess months of vanity
This is not a reddition or application of the above similes of the servant and hireling, (Job 7:1Job 7:2); for that is to be understood, and to be supplied at the end of (Job 7:2) ; that as those looked for the shadow and payment of hire, so Job looked for and earnestly desired death, or to be removed out of the world; besides, the things here instanced in do not answer; for Job, instead of having the refreshing shadow, had months of vanity, and instead of rest from his labours had nothing but wearisome nights, and continual tossings to and fro; whereas the sleep of a labouring man is sweet to him; and having laboured hard all day, the night is a time of rest to him; but so it was not with Job; wherefore this "so" refers to the common state and condition of mankind, in which Job was, with an addition of extraordinary afflictions upon him: the time of his afflictions, though but short, seemed long, and therefore is expressed by months; and some months might have passed from the time his calamities began to the present; since it must be some time before his friends heard of them, and more still before they could meet together and agree upon their coming, and were actually come to him; as also some time was spent in silence, and now in conversation with him; the Jews ^F16 make them to be twelve months: and these months were "months of vanity", or "empty" ^F17 ones; such as winter months, empty of all joy, and peace, and comfort; times in which he had no pleasure, no ease of body or of mind; destitute of the good things of life, and of the presence of God and communion with him; and full of trouble, sorrow, and distress.

And these were "given him for an inheritance" {r}; were his lot and portion, which he received as an inheritance from his parents, in consequence of original sin, the source of all the troubles and miseries of human life, in common with other men; and which were allotted him by his heavenly Father, according to his sovereign will and pleasure, as all the afflictions of the Lord's people are the inheritance bequeathed them by their Father, and the legacy of their Redeemer:

and wearisome nights are appointed to me ;
one after another, in succession; in which he could have no sleep nor rest, through pain of body and distress of mind; and so became the more weary, through long lying down and tossings to and fro, through groans and tears, and much watching; and these were prepared for him in the purposes of God, and appointed to him in his counsels and decrees; see (Job 23:14) ; or they "prepared" or "appointed" ^F19 ; that is, "Elohim", the three Divine Persons.

FOOTNOTES:

• F16: Vid. Misn. Ediot, c. 2. sect. 10. & R. Simeon Bar Tzemach, in loc.
• F17: (awv yxry) "menses vacuos", V. L. so Tigurine version, Michaelis.
• F18: (ytlxnh) "accepi hereditate", Pagninus, Montanus, Bolducius; so Cocceius, Schmidt, Schultens.
• F19: (yl wnm) "constituerunt mihi", Pagninus, Bolducius; "mihi paraverunt", Mercerus; so Schmidt, Cocceius, Schultens.

When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise
Or, "then I say" ^F20; that is, as soon as he laid himself down in his bed, and endeavoured to compose himself to sleep, in order to get rest and refreshment; then he said within himself, or with an articulate voice, to those about him, that sat up with him; oh that it was time to rise; when will it be morning, that I may rise from my bed, which is of no manner of service to me, but rather increases weariness?

and the night be gone ?
and the day dawn and break; or "night" or "evening be measured", as in the margin, or "measures itself" ^F21; or that "he", that is, God, or "it", my heart, "measures the evening" ^F23, or "night"; lengthens it out to its full time: to a discomposed person, that cannot sleep, the night seems long; such count every hour, tell every clock that strikes, and long to see peep of day; these are they that watch for the morning, (Psalms 130:6);

and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day ;
or, "unto the twilight"; the morning twilight; though some understand it of the twilight or evening of the next day, see (1 Samuel 30:17); and interpret "the tossings to and fro" of the toils and labours of the day, and of the sorrows and miseries of it, lengthened out to the eve of the following day; but rather they are to be understood either of the tosses of his mind, his distressed and perplexed thoughts within him he was full of; or of the tosses of his body, his frequent turning himself upon his bed, from side to side, to ease him; and with these he was "filled", or "satiated" ^F24; he had enough and too much of them; he was glutted and sated with them, as a man is with overmuch eating, as the word signifies.

FOOTNOTES:

• F20: (ytrmaw) "tum dixi", Beza, Piscator, Mercerus.
• F21: So Saadiah Gaon.
• F23: (bre ddmw) "tum admensus est versperam", Schmidt; "extendit", Schultens; "et cor", Mercerus; so Aben Ezra, Ben Gersom, and Bar Tzemach.
• F24: (ytebv) "satior", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Schultens.

My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust
Not as it would be at death, and in the grave, as Schmidt interprets it, when it would be eaten with worms and reduced to dust; but as it then was, his ulcers breeding worms, or lice, as some ^F25 ; these spread themselves over his body: some think it was the vermicular or pedicular disease that was upon him, and the scabs of them, which were all over him like one continued crust, were as a garment to him; or those sores of his, running with purulent matter, and he sitting and rolling himself in dust and ashes, and this moisture mingling therewith, and clotted together, formed clods of dust, which covered him all over; a dismal spectacle to look upon! a precious saint in a vile body!

my skin is broken :
with the boils and ulcers in all parts, and was parched and cleft with the heat and breaking of them:

and become loathsome ;
to himself and others; exceeding nauseous, and extremely disagreeable both to sight and smell: or "liquefied" ^F26 ; moistened with corrupt matter flowing from the ulcers in all parts of his body; the word in Arabic signifies a large, broad, and open wound, as a learned man ^F1 has observed; and it is as if he should say, whoever observes all this, this long time of distress, night and day, and what a shocking figure he was, as here represented, could blame him for wishing for death in the most passionate manner?

FOOTNOTES:

• F25: So Sephorno and Bar Tzemach.
• F26: (oamy) "liquefit", Junius & Tremellius; "colliquefacta est", Piscator, Mercerus.
• F1: Hinckelman. Praefat. ad Alcoran. p. 30.