Job · Literal Standard Version
Job 7 Literal Standard Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 “Is there not warfare to man on earth? And his days as the days of a hired worker?
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 desires the shadow, || And as a hired worker expects his wage,
2 As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,
3 So I have been caused to inherit months of vanity, || And they numbered nights of misery to me.
3 so I am made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.
4 If I lay down, then I have said, When do I rise, || And evening has been measured? And I have been full of tossings 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 flesh has been clothed [with] worms, || And a clod of dust, || My skin has been shriveled and is loathsome,
5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
6 My days swifter than a loom, || And they are consumed without hope.
6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
7 Remember that my life [is] a breath, || My eye does not turn back to see good.
7 Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good.
8 The eye of my beholder does not behold me. Your eyes [are] on me—and I am not.
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 has been consumed, and it goes, || So he who is going down to Sheol does not come up.
9 As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol will come up no more.
10 He does not turn to his house again, || Nor does his place discern him again.
10 He will return no more to his house, neither will his place know him any more.
11 Also I do not withhold my mouth—I speak in the distress of my spirit, I talk 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 a sea [monster], or a dragon, || That You set a watch over me?
12 Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?
13 When I said, My bed comforts me, || In my talking He takes away my couch.
13 When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me. My couch will ease my complaint,’
14 And You have frightened me with dreams, || And You terrify me from visions,
14 then you scare me with dreams and terrify me through visions,
15 And my soul chooses strangling, || Death rather than my bones.
15 so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.
16 I have wasted away—I do not live for all time. Cease from me, for my days [are] vanity.
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 magnify him? And that You set Your heart to him?
17 What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,
18 And inspect him in the mornings, || [And] in the evenings try him?
18 that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?
19 How long do You not look from me? You do not desist until I swallow my spittle.
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 do I do to You, || O watcher of man? Why have You set me for a mark to You, || And I am for a burden to myself—and what?
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 You do not take away my transgression, || And [do not] cause my iniquity to pass away, || Because now, I lie down in dust, || And You have sought me—and I am not!”
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)