Job 7:3

_SO AM I MADE TO POSSESS MONTHS OF VANITY, AND WEARISOME NIGHTS ARE APPOINTED TO ME._ Months of vanity - comfortless misfortune. "I am made (obliged against my will) to posses" - literally, to be heir to-irony. To be heir to is usually a matter of joy; but here it is the entail of an involuntary and dismal inheritance. Months, for days, to express its long duration. APPOINTED - literally, they have numbered to me; marking well the unavoidable doom assigned to him....

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...

Verse Job 7:3. _SO AM I MADE TO POSSESS_] But night is no relief to me, it is only a continuance of my anxiety and labour. I am like the _hireling_, I have my _appointed_ labour for the _day_. I am like the _soldier_ harassed by the enemy: I am obliged to be continually on the watch, always on the look out, with scarcely any rest....

SO AM I MADE TO POSSESS - Hebrew I am made to inherit. The meaning is, that such sad and melancholy seasons now were his only portion. MONTHS OF VANITY - That is, months which were destitute of comfort; in other words, months of affliction. How long his trials had continued before this, we have no means of ascertaining. There is no reason, however, to suppose that his bodily sufferings came upon him all at once, or that they had not continued for a considerable period. It is quite probable that his expressions of impatience were the result not only of the intensity, but the continuance of his sorrows. AND WEARISOME NIGHTS ARE APPOINTED TO ME - Even his rest was disturbed. The time when care is usually forgotten and toil ceases, was to him a period of sleepless anxiety and distress - עמל _‛__âmâl_. The Septuagint renders

EXPOSITION JOB 7:1 In this chapter Job first bewails his miserable fate, of which he expects no alleviation (verses 1-10); then claims an unlimited right of complaint (verse 11); and finally enters into direct expostulation with God—an expostulation which continues from verse 12 to the end of the chapter. At the close, he admits his sinfulness (verse 20), but asks impatiently why God does not pardon it instead of visiting it with such extreme vengeance (verse 21). JOB 7:1 IS THERE NOT AN APPOINTED TIME TO MAN UPON EARTH? rather, _Is there not a warfare _(or, _a time of service_)_ to man upon earth?_ Has not each man a certain work appointed for him to do, and a certain limited time assigned him within which to do it? And th

SO AM I MADE TO POSSESS MONTHS OF VANITY,.... This is not a reddition or application of the above similes of the servant and hireling, Job 7:1; for that is to be understood, and to be supplied at the end of Job 7:2; that as those looked for the shadow and payment of hire, so Job looked for and earnestly desired death, or to be removed out of the world; besides, the things here instanced in do not answer; for Job, instead of having the refreshing shadow, had months of vanity, and instead of rest from his labours had nothing but wearisome nights, and continual tossings to and fro; whereas the sleep of a labouring man is sweet to him; and having laboured hard all day, the night is a time of rest to him; but so it was not with Job; wherefore this "so" refers to the common state and condition of mankind, in which Job was, with an addit

Job was sorely troubled by the cruel speeches of his friends, and he answered them out of the bitterness of his soul. What we are first about to read is a part of his language under those circumstances. Job 7:1. _Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?_ Is there not a certain time for each one of us to live? Is there not an end to all the trouble and sorrow of this mortal state? «Woe is me,» says Job, »will this sad condition of things never come to a close? Must it always be thus with me?» Job 7:2. _As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow,_ When the day shall close, and he can go to his home, Job 7:2. And as an hireling

CHAPTER S 6-7 JOB'S ANSWER _ 1. His Despair justified by the greatness of his suffering (Job 6:1)_ 2. He requests to be cut off (Job 6:8) 3. He reproacheth his friends (Job 6:14) 4. The misery of life (Job 7:1) 5. Two questions: Why does God deal with me thus? Why does He not pardon? (Job 7:8) Job 6:1. He meets first of all the reproach and accusation of Eliphaz (Job 4:1). Because his sufferings are so g

Job complains of the misery of his life and destiny. How is it that Job does not go on to maintain his innocence? Instead of this he proceeds to show how dreadfully he suffers, and to accuse God of cruelty (Job 7:11 f.). The point is that he cannot think of his suffering without viewing it as a ground against God. The ideas of Eliphaz about suffering being due to sin make no impression on him: moreover he feels that, if he had sinned, that would give God no reason to treat him as He does. Again Job can hardly believe as yet that Eliphaz really meant to accuse him of sin. He indulges himself, therefore, freely again in the complaint of his misery. As before, however, in Job 3:20, he is led to think of his own case as one among many (Job 7:1 f.). Life is a sold

_made to possess_ lit. _made to inherit_. They are laid on him by the will of another. Job narrows his view here from the lot of men in general to his own. He is one of an afflicted race, but the universal misery does not alleviate his own, it rather increases it. That loss is common would not make My own less bitter, rather more; Too common! Never morning wore To evening, but some heart did break. A sorrowing Arab poet gives expression to a different feeling: Did not a common sorrow console me I would not live an hour among men, But whenever I will, they in like condition with myself respond to me. _Hamasa_, p. 389, 396. The point of comparison between Job's life and the day of the hireling lies in their common toil and their common longing for the end of it. Job describes his day as "months of vanity" and "nights of trouble," indicating that his disease had already endured a l...