Job 7:14

7:7-16 Plain truths as to the shortness and vanity of man's life, and the certainty of death, do us good, when we think and speak of them with application to ourselves. Dying is done but once, and therefore it had need be well done. An error here is past retrieve. Other clouds arise, but the same cloud never returns: so a new generation of men is raised up, but the former generation vanishes away. Glorified saints shall return no more to the cares and sorrows of their houses; nor condemned sinners to the gaieties and pleasures of their houses. It concerns us to secure a better place when we die. From these reasons Job might have drawn a better conclusion than this, I will complain. When we have but a few breaths to draw, we should spend them in the holy, gracious breathings of faith and prayer; not in the noisome, noxious breathings of sin and corruption. We have much reason to pray, that He who keeps Israel, and neither slumbers nor sleeps, may keep us when we slumber and sleep. Job covets to rest in his grave. Doubtless, this was his infirmity; for though a good man would choose death rather than sin, yet he should be content to live as long as God pleases, because life is our opportunity of glorifying him, and preparing for heaven.

Then thou scarest me with dreams,.... Not with dreams and visions being told him, as were by Eliphaz, Job 4:13 ; but with dreams he himself dreamed; and which might arise from the force of his distemper, and the pain of his body, whereby his sleep was broken, his imagination disturbed, and his fancy roving, which led him to objects as seemed to him very terrible and dreadful; or from a melancholy disposition his afflictions had brought upon him; and hence in his dreams he had dismal apprehensions of things very distressing and terrifying; or from Satan, in whose hands he was, and who was permitted to distress and disturb him at such seasons; all which he ascribes to God, because he suffered it so to be: and now these dreams not only hindered sound sleep, and getting that ease and refreshment he hoped for from thence, but even they were frightful and scaring to him, so that instead of being the better for his bed and his couch, he was the worse; these dreams added to his afflictions, and in them he suffered much, as Pilate's wife is said to do, Matthew 27:19 , and terrifiest me through visions; spectres, apparitions, and such like things, being presented to his fancy, while sleeping and dreaming, which filled him with terror, and sorely distressed him, so that he could receive no benefit hereby, but rather was more fatigued and weakened.

With sad and dreadful dreams, arising either from that melancholy humour which is now so fixed in me, and predominant over me, or from the devil’s malice, who by thy permission disturbs me in this manner; so that I am afraid to go to sleep, and my remedy proves as bad as my disease. Visions are the same thing with dreams; for there were not only day visions, which were offered to men’s sight when they were awake; but also night visions, which were presented to men’s fancy in their sleep and dreams. See Genesis 28:12 41:1,2 Da 2:1,31 4:5,10 .

Then thou scarest me - This is an address to God. He regarded him as the source of his sorrows, and he expresses his sense of this in language indeed very beautiful, but far from reverence. With dreams - see Job 7:4. A similar expression occurs in Ovid: Ut puto, cam requies medicinaque publica curae, Somnus adest, soliris nox venit orba malis, Somnia me terrent. veros imitantia casus, Et vigilant sensus in mea damna mei. Do Ponto, Lib. i. Eleg. 2. And terrifiest me through visions - See the notes at Job 4:13. This refers to the visions of the fancy, or to frightful appearances in the night. The belief of such night-visions was common in the early ages, and Job regarded them as under the direction of God, and as being designed to alarm him.

12 Am I a sea or a sea-monster, That thou settest a watch over me? 13 For I said, My bed shall comfort me; My couch shall help me to bear my complaint. 14 Then thou scaredst me with dreams, And thou didst wake me up in terror from visions, 15 So that my soul chose suffocation, Death rather than this skeleton. 16 I loathe it, I would not live alway; Let me alone, for my days are breath. Since a watch on the sea can only be designed to effect the necessary precautions at its coming forth from the shores, it is probable that the poet had the Nile in mind when he used ים, and consequently the crocodile by תּנּין. The Nile is also called ים in Isaiah 19:5, and in Homer ὠκεανός, Egyptian oham ( equals ὠκεανός), and is even now called (at least by the Bedouins) bahhr (Arab. bahr). The illustrations of the book, says von Gerlach correctly, are chiefly Egyptian. On the contrary, Hahn thinks the illustration is unsuitable of the Nile, because it is not watched on account of its danger, but its utility; and Schlottman thinks it even small and contemptible without assigning a reason. The figure is, however, appropriate. As watches are set to keep the Nile in channels as soon as it breaks forth, and as men are set to watch that they may seize the crocodile immediately he moves here or there; so Job says all his movements are checked at the very commencement, and as soon as he desires to be more cheerful he feels the pang of some fresh pain.

In Job 7:13, ב after נשׂא is partitive, as Numbers 11:17; Mercier correctly: non nihil querelam meam levabit. If he hopes for such repose, it forthwith comes to nought, since he starts up affrighted from his slumber. Hideous dreams often disturb the sleep of those suffering with elephantiasis, says Avicenna (in Stickel, S. 170). Then he desires death; he wishes that his difficulty of breathing would increase to suffocation, the usual end of elephantiasis. מחנק is absolute (without being obliged to point it מחנק with Schlottm.), as e.g., מרמס, Isaiah 10:6 (Ewald, 160, c). He prefers death to these his bones, i.e., this miserable skeleton or framework of bone to which he is wasted away. He despises, i.e., his life, Job 9:21. Amid such suffering he would not live for ever. הבל, like רוּח, Job 7:7.

[Bible] 6:22. Did I say: Bring to me, and give me of your substance? 6:23. Or deliver me from the hand of the enemy, and rescue me out of the hand of the mighty? 6:24. Teach me, and I will hold my peace: and if I have been ignorant of any thing, instruct me. 6:25. Why have you detracted the words of truth, whereas there is none of you that can reprove me? 6:26. You dress up speeches only to rebuke, and you utter words to the wind. 6:27. You rush in upon the fatherless, and you endeavour to overthrow your friend. 6:28. However, finish what you have begun: give ear and see whether I lie. 6:29. Answer, I beseech you, without contention: and speaking that which is just, judge ye. 6:30. And you shall not find iniquity in my tongue, neither shall folly sound in my mouth. Job Chapter 7 7:1. The life of man upon earth is a warfare, and his days are like the days of a hireling. 7:2. As a servant longeth for the shade, as the hireling looketh for the end of his work; 7:3. So I also have had empty months, and have numbered to myself wearisome nights. 7:4. If I lie down to sleep, I shall say: When shall I rise? and again, I shall look for the evening, and shall be filled with sorrows even till darkness. 7:5. My flesh is clothed with rottenness and the filth of dust; my skin is withered and drawn together. 7:6. My days have passed more swiftly than the web is cut by the weaver, and are consumed without any hope. 7:7. Remember that my life is but wind, and my eye shall not return to see good things. 7:8. Nor shall the sight of man behold me: thy eyes are upon me, and I shall be no more. 7:9. As a cloud is consumed, and passeth away: so he that shall go down to hell shall not come up. 7:10. Nor shall he return any more into his house, neither shall his place know him any more. 7:11. Wherefore, I will not spare my month, I will speak in the affliction of my spirit: I will talk with the bitterness of my soul. 7:12. Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou hast inclosed me in a prison?

I am not so bereft of common understanding, as not to be able to distinguish between good and evil; and therefore if I have uttered, or should utter, any perverse words, I should apprehend them to be so as well as you do. ## Our times are like those of hirelings, restless and hopeless. Death desirable. His days are as a weaver’s shuttle; his life is as wind; and he was consumed out of this world, and should appear in it no more, #Job 7:1-10 . Therefore he will speak to God, #Job 7:11,12 : is tired out and weary of life, #Job 7:13-16 . Man unworthy of God’s notice, #Job 7:17-19 . He confesseth his sin, and prayeth for forgiveness, #Job 7:20,21 . Ver. 1. Is there not a certain and short time limited by God wherein man shall live in this sinful, and vain, and miserable world, after which he shall live in a holier and happier place and state? and is it a crime in me to desire that God would give me some ease and respite for the present, and bring me to that blessed and joyful period? ## Like the days of an hireling; whose time is limited and short, being but for a few years, #Isaiah 16:14 21:16 , and sometimes but for days, #Job 14:6 Matthew 20:1,2 , and whose condition is full of toil and hardship. ## Ver. 2. The shadow, i.e. the sun-set, or the night, the time allotted for his rest and repose, #Psalms 104:23 . And why may not I also desire the time of my rest? ## The reward of his work, Heb. his work ; which is oft put for the reward of it, as #Leviticus 19:13 Isaiah 40:10 49:4 .

print —Either the stocks, or his disease, marked his soles ( Hebrew, "roots") as the bastinado would. Better, thou drawest (or diggest) [G ESENIUS ] a line (or trench) [G ESENIUS ] round my soles, beyond which I must not move [U MBREIT ]. 28. Job speaks of himself in the third person, thus forming the transition to the general lot of man (Job 14:1; Psalms 39:11; Hosea 5:12). ## CHAPTER 14 Job 14:1-22. J OB P ASSES FROM H IS O WN TO THE C OMMON M ISERY OF M ANKIND. 1. woman —feeble, and in the East looked down upon (Genesis 2:21). Man being born of one so frail must be frail himself (Matthew 11:11). few days —(Genesis 47:9; Psalms 90:10). Literally, "short of days." Man is the reverse of full of days and short of trouble. ## 2. (Psalms 90:6; see on Job 8:9). 3. open … eyes upon —Not in graciousness; but, "Dost Thou sharply fix Thine eyes upon?" (See on Job 7:20; also see on Job 1:7). Is one so frail as man worthy of such constant watching on the part of God? (Zechariah 12:4). me —so frail. thee —so almighty. 4. A plea in mitigation. The doctrine of original sin was held from the first. "Man is unclean from his birth, how then can God expect perfect cleanness from such a one and deal so severely with me?" 5. determined —(Job 7:1; Isaiah 10:23; Daniel 9:27; 11:36). 6. Turn —namely, Thine eyes from watching him so jealously (Job 14:3). hireling —(Job 7:1).