Job 7 Bible in Basic English
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Has not man his ordered time of trouble on the earth? and are not his days like the days of a servant working for payment?
1 “Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?
2 As a servant desiring the shades of evening, and a workman looking for his payment:
2 As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,
3 So I have for my heritage months of pain to no purpose, and nights of weariness are given to me.
3 so I am made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.
4 When I go to my bed, I say, When will it be time to get up? but the night is long, and I am turning from side to side till morning light.
4 When I lie down, I say, ‘When will I arise, and the night be gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.
5 My flesh is covered with worms and dust; my skin gets hard and then is cracked again.
5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
6 My days go quicker than the cloth-worker's thread, and come to an end without hope.
6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
7 O, keep in mind that my life is wind: my eye will never again see good.
7 Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good.
8 The eye of him who sees me will see me no longer: your eyes will be looking for me, but I will be gone.
8 The eye of him who sees me will see me no more. Your eyes will be on me, but I will not be.
9 A cloud comes to an end and is gone; so he who goes down into the underworld comes not up again.
9 As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol will come up no more.
10 He will not come back to his house, and his place will have no more knowledge of him.
10 He will return no more to his house, neither will his place know him any more.
11 So I will not keep my mouth shut; I will let the words come from it in the pain of my spirit, my soul will make a bitter outcry.
11 “Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12 Am I a sea, or a sea-beast, that you put a watch over me?
12 Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?
13 When I say, In my bed I will have comfort, there I will get rest from my disease;
13 When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me. My couch will ease my complaint,’
14 Then you send dreams to me, and visions of fear;
14 then you scare me with dreams and terrify me through visions,
15 So that a hard death seems better to my soul than my pains.
15 so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.
16 I have no desire for life, I would not be living for ever! Keep away from me, for my days are as a breath.
16 I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.
17 What is man, that you have made him great, and that your attention is fixed on him,
17 What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,
18 And that your hand is on him every morning, and that you are testing him every minute?
18 that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?
19 How long will it be before your eyes are turned away from me, so that I may have a minute's breathing-space?
19 How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?
20 If I have done wrong, what have I done to you, O keeper of men? why have you made me a mark for your blows, so that I am a weariness to myself?
20 If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?
21 And why do you not take away my sin, and let my wrongdoing be ended? for now I go down to the dust, and you will be searching for me with care, but I will be gone.
21 Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now will I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I will not be.”
Cross references (21)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Job 14:5–6; Psalm 39:4; Job 5:7; Job 14:13–14; Leviticus 25:50
- 2 Leviticus 19:13; Deuteronomy 24:15; James 5:4; Malachi 3:5; Jeremiah 6:4
- 3 Psalm 6:6; Ecclesiastes 1:14; Job 16:7; Job 29:2; Psalm 39:5
- 4 Deuteronomy 28:67; Job 7:13–14; Psalm 77:4; Psalm 6:6; Psalm 130:6
- 5 Isaiah 14:11; Job 17:14; Job 2:7–8; Isaiah 1:6; Acts 12:23
- 6 Job 9:25; Job 17:15; Job 17:11; Isaiah 38:12–13; Isaiah 40:6–7
- 7 James 4:14; Psalm 78:39; Jeremiah 15:15; Psalm 89:47; Job 10:21–22
- 8 Job 20:9; Psalm 37:36; Job 8:18; Psalm 90:8–9; Job 13:27
- 9 Job 10:21; 2 Samuel 14:14; Job 30:15; Job 16:22; Job 14:10–14
- 10 Job 8:18; Job 20:9; Psalm 103:16; Job 27:23; Job 27:21
- 11 1 Samuel 1:10; Psalm 40:9; Job 10:1; Isaiah 38:15; Job 21:25
- 12 Job 7:17; Lamentations 3:7; Ezekiel 32:2–3; Job 38:6–11; Job 41:1–34
- 13 Psalm 6:6; Psalm 77:4; Job 7:3–4; Job 9:27–28
- 14 Genesis 41:8; Daniel 2:1; Genesis 40:5–7; Judges 7:13–14; Matthew 27:19
- 15 Matthew 27:5; 2 Samuel 17:23
- 16 1 Kings 19:4; Job 10:1; Job 9:21; Job 14:6; Psalm 62:9
- 17 Hebrews 2:6; Psalm 8:4; Psalm 144:3; Job 34:14–15; Job 7:12
- 18 1 Peter 1:7; Jeremiah 9:7; Isaiah 38:12–13; Job 14:3; Genesis 22:1
- 19 Job 9:18; Psalm 13:1–3; Job 14:6; Psalm 6:3; Psalm 94:3
- 20 Lamentations 3:12; Psalm 36:6; Job 3:24; Job 7:11–12; Psalm 21:12
- 21 Job 10:14; Daniel 12:2; 1 John 1:9; Lamentations 5:20–22; Isaiah 64:9
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
"For I shall not live alway, that I should suffer long." Next, his being conscious to himself of many good works.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)