Job · Catholic Public Domain Version
Job 7 Catholic Public Domain Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (3)
- Esther and Daniel are the Vulgate books (Esther 1–16 with the Greek additions as chapters 10:4–16; Daniel 1–14 with the Song of the Three, Susanna and Bel). Baruch 6 is the Letter of Jeremiah.
- The translator's footnotes, cross-references, chapter summaries and book introductions in the CrossWire module are not shown.
- No imprimatur; single translator.
1 The life of a man on the earth is a battle, and his days are like the days of a hired hand.
1 “Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?
2 Just as a servant desires the shade, and just as the hired hand looks forward to the end of his work,
2 As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,
3 so also have I had empty months and have counted my burdensome nights.
3 so I am made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.
4 If I lie down to sleep, I will say, “When will I rise?” And next I will hope for the evening and will be filled with sorrows even until darkness.
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 clothed with particles of rottenness and filth; my skin is dried up and tightened.
5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
6 My days have passed by more quickly than threads are cut by a weaver, and they have been consumed without any hope.
6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
7 Remember that my life is wind, and my eye will not return to see good things.
7 Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good.
8 Neither will the sight of man gaze upon me; your eyes are upon me, and I will not endure.
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 Just as a cloud is consumed and passes away, so he who descends to hell will not ascend.
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 return again to his house, nor will his own place know him any longer.
10 He will return no more to his house, neither will his place know him any more.
11 And because of this, I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the affliction of my spirit. I will converse from the bitterness of my soul.
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 an ocean or a whale, that you have encircled me in a prison?
12 Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?
13 If I say, “My bed will comfort me, and I will find rest, speaking with myself on my blanket,”
13 When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me. My couch will ease my complaint,’
14 then you will frighten me with dreams, and strike dread through visions,
14 then you scare me with dreams and terrify me through visions,
15 so that, because of these things, my soul would choose hanging, and my bones, death.
15 so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.
16 I despair; by no means will I live any longer. Spare me, for my days are nothing.
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 should praise him? Or why do you place your heart near him?
17 What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,
18 You visit him at dawn, and you test him unexpectedly.
18 that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?
19 How long will you not spare me, nor release me to ingest my saliva?
19 How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?
20 I have sinned; what should I do for you, O keeper of men? Why have you set me against you, so that I have become burdensome even 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 Why do you not steal away my sin, and why do you not sweep away my iniquity? Behold, now I will sleep in the dust, and if you seek me in the morning, I will not remain.
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)