John Gill Commentary Job 7:20

"If I have sinned, what do I unto thee, O thou watcher of men? Why hast thou set me as a mark for thee, So that I am a burden to myself?" — Job 7:20 (ASV)

I have sinned Some render it, "if I have sinned" ^F23 ; be it so that I have, as my friends say, yet since there is forgiveness with you, why should I be so afflicted as I am? but there is no need of such a supplement, the words are an affirmation, I have sinned, or I am a sinner; not that he owned that he had been guilty of any notorious sin, or had lived a sinful course of life, on account of which his afflictions came upon him, as his friends suggested; but that he was not without sin, was daily guilty of it, as men, even the best of men, ordinarily are;

and being a sinner was not a match for a holy God; he could not contend with him, nor answer him for one sin of a thousand committed by him in thought, word or deed; and therefore desires him to desist and depart from him, see (Luke 5:8) ;

what shall I do unto thee ? this he said, not as one in distress of mind on account of sin, and under the load of the guilt of it, inquiring what he must do to make satisfaction for it, how and what way he could be saved from it; for he knew that nothing done by him in a ceremonial way by sacrifices, nor in a moral way by the performance of duties, could take away sin, or atone for it, or save him from it; he knew this was only by his living Redeemer, and whom he knew and determined should be his salvation, and he only; see (Job 9:30Job 9:31) (Job 13:15Job 13:16) (19:25) ; but rather as it may be rendered, "what can or ought I do unto thee?" ^F24 that is, more than I have done, namely, to confess my sin unto thee;

what more do you require of me? or what more can be done by me, than to repent of my sin, acknowledge it, and beg pardon for it? as he does in (Job 7:21) : or "what can I do unto thee?" you are all over match for me, I cannot struggle and contend with you, a sinful man with an holy God:

O thou preserver of men ? as he is in a providential way, the supporter of men in their lives and beings; or, "O you keeper of men" ^F25 , as he is, not only of Israel, but of all others, and that night and day; perhaps Job may refer to his setting and keeping a watch over him, (Job 7:12) ; and enclosing and hedging him all around with afflictions, so that he could not get out of the world as he desired; or, "O you observer of men" ^F26 , of their words, ways, works, and actions, and who kept such a strict eye upon him while wrestling with him, and therefore what could he do? or, "O you Saviour of men" ^F1 , by whom only I can be saved from the sins I have been and am daily guilty of:

why has you set me as a mark against you ? as a butt to shoot your arrows at, one affliction after another, thick and fast, see (Job 16:12) (Lamentations 3:12) ; the words I think may be rendered, "why has you appointed me to meet you", or "for a meeting with you?" ^F2 as one man challenge, another to meet him in such a place and fight him: alas! I am not equal to you, I am a mere worm, not able to contend with you the mighty God, or to meet you in the way of your judgments, and to endure the heavy strokes of your angry hand; and so Bar Tzemach paraphrases it,``you has hated me, and not loved me; that you has set, or appointed me to meet you, as a man meets his enemy in the time of his wrath, and he stirs up against him all his fury:'' and to the same sense, and much in the same words, Jarchi interprets it:

so that I am a burden to myself ? weary of his life, through the many pressing and heavy afflictions upon him, as Rebekah was of hers, because of the daughters of Heth, (Genesis 27:46) . The reading which we follow, and is followed by the Targum, and by most interpreters, Jewish and Christian, is a correction of the scribes, and one of the eighteen places corrected by them; which is no argument of the corruption of the Hebrew text, but of the contrary; since this was only placed in the margin of the Bible, as the Masorites afterwards did with their various readings, showing only what was their sense of this, and the like passages; and as an instruction how in their opinion to understand them, still retaining the other reading or writing; and which, according to Aben Ezra, may be rightly interpreted, and is, "so that I am a burden to you" ^F3 ;

and which is followed by some, signifying, as Job thought at least, that he was so offensive to him that he could not bear him, but treated him as an enemy; was weary of him, as God is said to be of sinners and their sins, and of the services and duties of carnal professors, see (Isaiah 1:14) (43:24) ; so Abendana interprets it,``you has set me for a mark unto you, as if I was a burden to you.''

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FOOTNOTES:

• F23: Vatablus, Drusius, Schmidt; so Sept. Syr. & Ar.
• F24: Kl lepa hm "quid faciam aut facere possum tibi", Michaelis; "debeam", Schmidt.
• F25: Mdah run "custos hominum". V. L. Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus.
• F26: "Observator", Schultens.
• F1: "Sospitatur", Codurcus; "servator", Drusius, Schmidt, Michaelis. Vid. Witsii Oeconom. Foeder. l. 4. c. 3. sect. 30.
• F2: Kl enpml "in occursum tibi", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Drusius.
• F3: Kyle epi soi , Sept. "et tibi", Beza, Grotius.