Job 7:4

7:1-6 Job here excuses what he could not justify, his desire of death. Observe man's present place: he is upon earth. He is yet on earth, not in hell. Is there not a time appointed for his abode here? yes, certainly, and the appointment is made by Him who made us and sent us here. During that, man's life is a warfare, and as day-labourers, who have the work of the day to do in its day, and must make up their account at night. Job had as much reason, he thought, to wish for death, as a poor servant that is tired with his work, has to wish for the shadows of the evening, when he shall go to rest. The sleep of the labouring man is sweet; nor can any rich man take so much satisfaction in his wealth, as the hireling in his day's wages. The comparison is plain; hear his complaint: His days were useless, and had long been so; but when we are not able to work for God, if we sit still quietly for him, we shall be accepted. His nights were restless. Whatever is grievous, it is good to see it appointed for us, and as designed for some holy end. When we have comfortable nights, we must see them also appointed to us, and be thankful for them. His body was noisome. See what vile bodies we have. His life was hastening apace. While we are living, every day, like the shuttle, leaves a thread behind: many weave the spider's web, which will fail, ch. 8:14.

When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise,.... Or, "then I say", &c. (t); 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" (u); or that "he", that is, God, or "it", my heart, "measures the evening" (w), 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, Psalm 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" (x); 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. (t) "tum dixi", Beza, Piscator, Mercerus. (u) So Saadiah Gaon. (w) "tum admensus est versperam", Schmidt; "extendit", Schultens; "et cor", Mercerus; so Aben Ezra, Ben Gersom, and Bar Tzemach. (x) "satior", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Schultens.

4, 5 . A graphic account of his condition under his malady. Job 7:4 should probably be rendered, When I lie down I say, When shall I arise? And the night stretches out, and I am full of tossings, &c. At evening he longs for morning ( Deuteronomy 28:67 ), but the night seems to him to prolong itself, and he tosses restlessly till the daybreak.

Verse 4. - When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? So Gesenius, Rosenmuller, and Delitzsch. Others translate, "the night is long" (Dillmann, Renan), or "the night seems endless" (Merx); comp. Deuteronomy 28:67 , "At evening thou shalt say, Would God it were morning!" And I am full of tossings to and fro . Professor Lee understands "tossings of the mind," or "distracting thoughts;" but it is more probable that tossings of the body are meant. These are familiar to every bad sleeper . Unto the dawning of the day . A little rest sometimes visits the tired eyelids after a long, sleepless night. Job may refer to this, or he may simply mean that he lay tossing on his bed all through the night, till morning came, when he arose. Job 7:4

When I lie down, to get some rest and sleep. The night , Heb. the evening ; the part put for the whole, as it is Genesis 1:5 . To and fro; from side to side in the bed, as men in grievous pains of body or anxiety of mind use to be. Unto the dawning of the day; so this Hebrew word is used also @1 Samuel 30:17 ; Psalm 119:147 .

When I lie down - I find no comfort and no rest on my bed. My nights are long, and I am impatient to have them passed, and equally so is it with the day. This is a description which all can understand who have been laid on a bed of pain. And the night be gone - Margin, evening be measured. Herder renders this, "the night is irksome to me." The word rendered night (ערב ‛ereb) properly means the early part of the night, until it is succeeded by the dawn. Thus, in Genesis 1:5," And the evening (ערב ‛ereb) and the morning were the first day." Here it means the portion of the night which is before the dawning of the aurora - the night. The word rendered "be gone" and in the margin "be measured" ( מדּד mı̂ddad), has been variously rendered. The verb מדד mâdad means to stretch, to extend, to measure; and, according to Gesenius, the form of the word used here is a noun meaning flight, and the sense is, "when shall be the flight of the night?" He derives it from נדד nâdad to move, to flee, to flee away. So Rosenmuller explains it. The expression is poetic, meaning, when shall the night be gone? I am full of tossings to and fro - (נדדים nâdûdı̂ym). A word from the same root. It means uneasy motions, restlessness. He found no quiet repose on his bed. Unto the dawning - נשׁף nesheph, from נשׁף nâshaph, to breathe; hence, the evening twilight because the breezes blow, or seem to breathe, and then it means also the morning twilight, the dawn. Dr.