Job 7:16-21

7. To God he addresses some difficult questions. (Job 7:16-21)

TEXT 7:16-21

16 I loathe my life; I would not live alway:

Let me alone; for my days are vanity.

17 What Is man, that thou shouldest magnify him,

And that thou shouldest set thy mind upon him,

18 And that thou shouldest visit him every morning,

And try him every moment?

19 How long wilt thou not look away from me,

Nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?

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 harden to myself?

21 And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity?

For now shall I lie down in the dost;
And thou wilt seek me diligently, but I shall not be.

COMMENT 7:16-21

Job 7:16I loathe can be connected with the previous verse, as my life is not in the Hebrew text. MeaningI despise death more than my pain.[104] Vanity is the same word translated vanity of vanities in Ecclesiastes 1:2.

[104] See Dhorme, Job, p. 107.

Job 7:17-18Here we note a parody of Psalms 8:4 ff (Hebrews 2:6). We encounter strong irony in Job's words set thy mind upon or pay attention. God, why are you devoting so much unfriendly attention to man in general, and specifically to Job? Is this divine providence? Pope describes this as overbearing inquisitiveness and unrelenting surveillance,[105] Job 23:10; Zechariah 13:3; Psalms 17:3visittest parallel (note this is true of Israel, Jesus, the Suffering Servant, and Christians) in the temptation narratives.

[105] Pope, Job, Anchor, p. 62; also J. Hempel, Forchungen and Fonchritte, Vol. 35 (Berlin, 1961), p. 123, for analysis of surveillance theme.

Job 7:19Job feels that he cannot get away from God's hostile eye, even for a moment. Compare Job's experience and David'SPsalms 33:18; Psalms 34:15. The idiomatic expression Let me swallow my spittle means wait, or let me alone for a moment.

Job 7:20Surely Job is not that important to God that He should watch over him. Even if Job admits that he has sinned, he has not hurt God commensurate with the suffering with which Job has been inflicted. The word translated mark (only found here in the Old Testament) is not a target, but something which one strikes1 Kings 2:25. Job is weary of being a mark for God's hostile action that life (burdenmassa) has become an intolerable malaise.

Job 7:21Even inadvertent sin does not deserve all the inflicted pain which was fallen to Job's lot. Even if God forgives, it will be too late. Job will be dead. Again the pessimism that only resurrection can shatter. Godseek me (from noun meaning dawn or early)Proverbs 8:17. Jeremiah speaks of God rising up early to send the prophets to IsraelJeremiah 7:13; Jeremiah 7:25; Jeremiah 25:4. Job maintains that God will in the end realize His mistake, but it will be too late. Throughout Job maintains belief in a creator-redeemer God of Justice, Holiness, and Love, while attacking Him for cruelty and inhuman threat.[106]

[106] The twentieth century has and continues to express deep unbelief regarding the Christian view of God. Without question the fundamental reason is the intensification of injustice, suffering, evil, and general cultural crisis. See my syllabus Discovering the Christian Mind (Apologetics-Evidences); and Martin Marty, Varieties of Unbelief (New York: Doubleday); Jas. Collins, God in Modern Philosophy (Chicago: Regnery, 1967); and S. Schrey, L-'atheisme Contemporain (Paris, 1964).