Job 7 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 “Isn't life for human beings like serving a sentence of hard labor? Don't their days pass like those of a hired laborer?
1 “Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?
2 Like some slave longing for a bit of shade, like a hired hand anxiously waiting for pay day,
2 As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,
3 I've been given months of emptiness and nights of misery.
3 so I am made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.
4 When I go to bed I ask, ‘When shall I get up?’ But the night goes on and on, and I toss and turn until dawn.
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 body is covered with maggots and caked in dirt; my skin is cracked, with oozing sores.
5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
6 My days pass quicker than a weaver's shuttle and they come to an end without hope.
6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
7 Remember that my life is just a breath; I will not see happiness again.
7 Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good.
8 Those watching me won't see me anymore; 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 When a cloud disappears, it's gone, just as anyone who goes down to Sheol does not come back up.
9 As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol will come up no more.
10 They will never return home, and the people they knew will forget them.
10 He will return no more to his house, neither will his place know him any more.
11 So, no, I won't hold my tongue—I will speak in the agony of my spirit; I will complain in 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 the sea or a sea monster that you have to guard me?
12 Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?
13 If I tell myself, ‘I'll feel better if I lie down on my bed,’ or ‘it will help me to lie down on my couch,’
13 When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me. My couch will ease my complaint,’
14 then you scare me so much with dreams and terrify me with visions
14 then you scare me with dreams and terrify me through visions,
15 that I would rather be strangled—I would rather die than become just a bag of bones.
15 so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.
16 I hate my life! I know I won't live long. Leave me alone because my life is just 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 Why are human beings so important to you; why are you so concerned about them
17 What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,
18 that you inspect them every morning and test them every moment? Won't you ever stop staring at me?
18 that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?
19 Won't you ever leave me alone long enough to catch my breath?
19 How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?
20 What have I done wrong? What have I done to you, Watcher of Humanity? Why have you made me your target, so that I'm a burden 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 If so why don't you pardon my sins, and take away my guilt? Right now I'm going to lie down in the dust, and though you will look for me, 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)