Job 7:16

16 I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning.

Job 7:16 in Other Translations

KJV
16 I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.
ESV
16 I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.
NLT
16 I hate my life and don’t want to go on living. Oh, leave me alone for my few remaining days.
MSG
16 I hate this life! Who needs any more of this? Let me alone! There's nothing to my life - it's nothing but smoke.
CSB
16 I give up! I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.

Job 7:16 Meaning and Commentary

Job 7:16

I loathe [it]
Or "them" F11, either his life, which was a weariness to him, or his bones, which were so painful and nauseous; or rather, "I am become loathsome", to himself, to his servants, and to his friends, and even his breath was strange to his wife; or "being ulcerated, I pine and waste away" F12, and must in course be quickly gone:

I would not live always;
no man can or will; there is no man that lives but what shall see death, ( Psalms 89:48 ) ; Job knew this, nor did he expect or desire it; and this was not his meaning, but that he desired that he might not live long, or to the full term of man's life, yea, that he might die quickly; and indeed to a good man to die is gain; and to depart out of the world, and be with Christ, is far better than to continue in it. And had Job expressed himself without passion, and with submission to the divine will, what he says would not have been amiss:

let me alone;
or "cease from me" F13; from afflicting him any more, having as great a weight upon him as he could bear, or greater than he could well stand up under; or from supporting him in life, he wishes that either God would withdraw his afflicting hand from him, or his preserving hand; either abate the affliction, or dismiss him from the world:

for my days [are] vanity;
a "breath" F14 or puff of wind; a "vapour", as Mr. Broughton renders it, that soon vanishes away; days empty of all that is good, delightful, and pleasant, and full of evil, trouble, and sorrow, as well as fleeting, transitory, and soon gone, are as nothing, yea, less than nothing, and vanity.


FOOTNOTES:

F11 "Aspernor vitam", Piscator; so Jarchi & Ben Gersom.
F12 (ytoam) "tabui", Cocceius; "ulceratus tabesco", Schultens.
F13 (ynmm ldx) "cessa a me", Pagninus, Montanus, Bolducius, Schmidt.
F14 (lbh) "halitus", Michaelis, Schultens.

Job 7:16 In-Context

14 even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions,
15 so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine.
16 I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning.
17 “What is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so much attention,
18 that you examine them every morning and test them every moment?

Cross References 4

  • 1. S 1 Kings 19:4; Job 9:21; Job 10:1
  • 2. S Job 3:22
  • 3. ver 19; Job 10:20; Psalms 39:13
  • 4. S ver 7
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