Deeper Commentary
Job 7:1 Isn’t a man forced to labour on earth? Aren’t his days like
the days of a hired hand?- LXX "Is not the life of man upon earth a state of trial?";
GNB "Human
life is like forced army service, like a life of hard manual labor".
Isaiah’s prophecies of the restoration and the Kingdom are shot full of
allusions back to Job. The cry that Zion’s warfare or “appointed time” is
now ended (Is. 40:2) is taken straight out of Job 7:1; indeed, Job 7:3-7
describes Job’s haggard life in the same terms as Israel in dispersion are
described in Isaiah 40. The point being, that Job’s eventual re-conversion
and salvation is a pattern for that of all God’s people.
Job came to recognize that every moment he existed was a trial to him, sent by his satan-Angel. Thus he complained "Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?" (7:1). The Hebrew for "appointed time" is exactly the same as for "host" as in hosts of Angels. This neatly connects the idea that the exact duration of his life was controlled by God's Angel-host, as was every trial which he experienced. This would be the work of the "wonderful numberer" Angel of Dan. 8:13 who controls all time periods. Job 14:13,14 says the same: "O that Thou wouldest
hide me in the grave... if a man die, shall he live again? all the
days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come". "What is man
that Thou dost magnify him? and that Thou shouldest set Thy heart upon him? (lit. 'consider him')" (7:17). Thus Job sees God- whom he probably conceived of as an Angel- as considering him, whilst we are told earlier that satan was told to do this. A human satan considering Job would not in itself have brought the trials, and Job would not have complained so bitterly about a human being considering him. An Angelic satan setting his heart upon Job would account for this 'considering' alone leading to the trials. If it is argued that it is a human satan who set his heart on Job here in Job 7, then the context is hard, though not impossible, to square: "Thou dost magnify man... Thou preserver of men" (v. 20,21). There is some hint of physical movement by 'God' which would seem applicable to the Angel too: "Thou shouldest visit him... depart from me... let me alone" (v. 18,19).
Job 7:2 As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who
looks for his wages-
We have the advantage of having read the prologue. Yahweh is very proud of His servant Job. But Job doesn't know that, and presents himself as an abused, unpaid servant who just wants to end the misery of his servanthood by suicide. Just as Joseph put on a hard face to the brothers, but behind that had a heart that wept and broke in love for them- so it can be between God and man. Job was indeed Yahweh's servant, but His beloved and favourite one. But He acted in a way that left Job thinking he was the most abused of all Yahweh's servants. But the end of the Lord... is that He is very pitiful and of tender mercy to Job (James 5:11). The rejected servant in the Lord's parable considered Him a "hard man". He is anything but a hard taskmaster. It is those who refuse to see behind the veil, who create their own narratives about God which are so wrong, those who see life only on the surface level... who end up not knowing God and rejecting themselves from His purpose with them. Those who cannot move beyond the fact God slew their 10 beloved kids with a tornado...
I noted on Job 6:10 that Job felt that he was owed wages for his good works and teaching of God's word before his calamities began. He moves on from just wanting death to concluding that righteousness must have a reward; and if not in this life, then it must come at some point after life ends. This becomes developed into a belief in a day of judgment and the final manifestation of God. And this happens ahead of time, as it were, in Yahweh's final manifestation at the end of the book; but this lead Job to resign all his own righteousness.
Job 7:3 so am I made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are
appointed to me- It is unlikely that Job's period of affliction lasted more than a year
or so, and yet this is the part of his life and spiritual growth
that is presented to us in such detail. At times Job thinks that he is
likely to die that night; here he seems to imagine death coming after
"months" of such nights. This is a realistic psychological picture of a
suffering man. And it is likewise psychologically credible that
the suffering person in one sense feels that time is dragging, and yet in
Job 9:25,26 he feels that his time on this earth is racing by: "My days
are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good. They go by
like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey".
The same contradictory feelings are seen in how on one hand he believes in
a resurrection from the dead, but at other times he has no hope for any
life after death. In Job 21:7-9 he feels that the wicked are blessed; in
Job 27:13-17 he is sure that the wicked must some day be punished. But it
was out of this dialectic that he came to truth.
Job 7:4 When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I arise, and the night be
gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day- LXX
"Whenever I lie down, I say, When will it be day? and whenever I rise up,
again I say when will it be evening? and I am full of pains from evening
to morning". This is clearly
the spirit of Dt. 28:67 "In the morning you will say, I wish it were
evening! and at evening you will say, I wish it were morning! for the fear
of your heart which you shall fear and for the sight of your eyes which
you shall see". Job is clearly representative of Israel in their
suffering.
Job 7:5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes
up, and breaks out afresh- The crusts forming over the sores appeared
as "clods of dust", driving Job to appreciate his humanity as mere dust
and ashes. The disease sounds like leprosy or elephantiasis, and connects
him with the suffering Judah of Is. 1:6. Worms are typically associated
with the decaying of a dead body, so it was as if Job experienced a living
death.
Job 7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent
without
hope- Originally, Job believed that his "hope" was predicated upon
his upright ways (Job 4:6). But Job through his sufferings comes to
feel
he now has no "hope" (Job 7:6; 14:19; 17:15; 19:10). The friends suggest
that Job had only the "hope" of the hypocrite, and this "hope" would
perish (Job 4:6; 8:13; 27:8). Job had integrity, and on that basis he
thought he had "hope". He suffered, and he lost that "hope", because he
assumed that his sufferings meant that he was not in fact righteous. And
yet he often reflects that he is righteous and is suffering unjustly. And
so he is led to the realization that the "hope" of the righteous is by
God's grace and not because of the "integrity of [Job's] ways". Judah in
captivity likewise lost their "hope" (Ez. 19:5; 37:11). But the message of
the restoration prophets was that "there is hope in your end"
(Jer. 31:17); they were prisoners or exiles in "hope" (Zech. 9:12).
Job 7:7 Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye shall no more see
good- It's unclear whether this is addressed to the friends or to
God, although I suggest on :8 that it is primarily God whom he has in
view. Whatever, he is asking for pity to be shown to him because he has no
"good" in front of him and his life is so short. See on Job 8:2.
Job 7:8 The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more. Your eyes shall
be on me, but I shall not be- Again it is hard to know whether Job
addresses God, "Him who sees me", or the friends, "your eyes...". He goes
on to address God in :12. He thinks that because his own eye shall no
longer see (:7), therefore their eyes would not see him. Job often refers
to God's eyes, perhaps a reference to the Angels, who I suggested were
representing the satan figure (the friends?) in the court of heaven; see
on Job. 1:6. But he was to be taught that God doesn't see as man sees; our
vision is not His. And his assumption that God will not see him
again after death... is going to turn into a strong conviction that at
some point after death, he will see God (Job 19:25-27).
Job 7:9 As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to
Sheol shall come up no more- That was how he felt, although already
he has hinted that there must be a day of future reward after his death;
and this becomes developed into a belief in a day of judgment and the
final manifestation of God (Job 19:25-27). And a man who
oscillated so much in his faith and verbal behaviour is seen by James 5:11
as an example of patient endurance... not being derailed, ultimately, by
his failures.
Job 7:10 He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place
know him any more- That is true, in that there is no disembodied
existence after death, and the dead don't return to haunt where they had
once lived. This belief in the mortality of man was in sharp distinction
to the beliefs of the primitive people amongst whom Job lived, and such
understanding of death as unconsciousness and inactivity has always been
characteristic of God's true people.
Job 7:11 Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of
my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul- Job fell into the trap of thinking that his terrible situation somehow
allowed him to speak whatever words came into his head. Job felt he hadn’t been ‘fed’ and so he was entitled to
“bray” and “low” over his misfortune (Job 6:5).
Job 7:12 Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that You put a guard over me?-
God will later engage with this when He talks of Leviathan the sea monster and Behemoth the beast. Clearly God sees Job as like them- thick skinned and stupid, made as His plaything, teased by His Angels. If anything, God is saying 'Yes Job, that's who you are'. And all within us as humans cries out against this. But as ever, the end of the Lord is that He was very pitiful and of tender, saving mercy to Job (James 5:11). For now, Job is asking: 'Am I Yam or Tannin?', the monsters hunted and slain by Baal. God's answer is also that no, I am not going to slay you and triumph over you. I am here to save you. But yes you are like the sea monster, that stupid and dumb, who faces a surging flood of Jordan head on and opens his mouth thinking he can swallow it all up. God will reply that He does indeed put a guard over "the sea", Yam, the sea god. And it is a band of "thick darkness", which Job complained had come upon him from God (Job 38:8-11). The "guard" or band was in fact for his salvation; the word is used in Neh. 4:9 for a "guard of protection". Job complains that he is under constant surveillance; but we know from the prologue what he doesn't. That surveillance was from a God who loved him and had a hugely positive view of him. Even though He slew his ten kids with a tornado... Job argues that he can understand God keeping a close check on Yam and Tannin, the sea monsters. But he is just a mere man- for we must read :17 in this context: "What is man, that You should magnify him, that You should set Your mind on him". Why would God so bother with him... And that is the point of God's response, in likening Job to Leviathan and "the sea". Job is even more important to God than they are. These monsters didn't exist- but, as with the issue of demons, God reasons along as if they do. The point being, that He is way above them and is all powerful. And all loving. Sure, there is no restoration of justice, justice being done and being seen to be done etc. He gives no justification for His ways. For He is not a man that this should be appropriately demanded of Him.
There are several allusions in Job to Babylonian
legends concerning Marduk – indicating that the book must have been
re-written in Babylon with allusion to these legends. Thus the Enuma
Elish 4.139,140 speaks of how Marduk limited the waters of Tiamat, and
set up a bar and watchmen so that the waters wouldn’t go further than he
permitted. But this very language is applied to God in Job 7:12 and Job
38:8–11. One of the purposes of Job was to urge Judah that Yahweh was
greater than Marduk, He and not Marduk was to be Israel’s God.
Job 7:13 When I say, ‘My bed shall comfort me. My couch shall ease my
complaint’- Sleep was no way of temporary relief. If indeed he had
elephantiasis as suggested on :5, then this sleeplessness and
psychological disturbance was associated with that disease.
Job 7:14 then You scare me with dreams, and terrify me through visions-
"Scare" is the word elsewhere translated 'dismay', and is used of how the
exiles were urged not to be dismayed but to believe that God would indeed
bring them from exile to restoration in His restored Kingdom (Is. 51:7;
Jer. 30:10; 46:27). Job begins by being dismayed / scared (Job 7:14), but
develops to not be dismayed (Job 31:34 s.w.), following the example of the
Lord's battle horse (Job 39:22).
Job 7:15 so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than to see my
bones- Clearly Job was suicidal although he later keeps himself in
check, and instead pesters God to take his life. The agony in Job's bones
looked forward to the experience of the Lord on the cross, where He saw
His bones sticking out as He looked down upon them (Ps. 22:17).
But Job is now blaming God for his suicidal thoughts; his claim is that
God has 'scared' him (:14), and now he wants to die when he looks at his
body. And the desire to end mortal life leads on to a desire not to have
eternal life ["I don't want to live forever", :16].
Job 7:16 I loathe my life- This is the same word as "cast away". The
grace of it all was that although he wanted to cast away his life (Job
7:16; 9:21), just as God's people cast away His covenant (Is. 8:6; 30:12;
Jer. 6:19), God would not cast away His people in their exile and
depression (s.w. Lev. 26:44), even if they cast him away. Job felt
despised or cast away by God (Job 10:14) just as the exiles did, but this
wasn't the case; God will not despise or cast away His servant people (Job
36:5; Is. 41:9; Jer. 31:37; 33:26).
I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath- Continually, Job sees God and not any cosmic, evil 'Satan' figure as responsible for his sufferings. His momentary desire not to live forever suggests he knew that eternal life was on offer, but like the exiles, the weight of his sufferings caused him to lose interest in that hope. However we can understand him as meaning that he didn't want to live forever in this life, as he was.
Israel in Egypt told Moses to leave them alone to serve Pharaoh; the Psalms marvel, therefore, at God's grace in still bringing them out of Egypt. And likewise Job, the man who didn't want to live for ever, will live for ever. God doesn't pay ultimate attention to every word... and neither should we. LXX "I shall not live for ever, that I should patiently endure: depart from me, for my life is vain". As discussed on Job 6:11, this is alluded to in James 5:11 where we are told that Job was in fact 'patient' [s.w.]. Job did not see the point of patient endurance because he didn't believe he would live for ever. But James 5 says that he did patiently endure. God sees our endurance over the long term, overlooking the times we did not endure in the short term.
Job 7:17 What is man, that You should magnify him-
Ps. 8:4,5 clearly alludes to these words, but concludes that despite man being so small, he is to be "crowned with glory and honour"- and this elicits praise of Him. Whereas Job is saying that because man is so small, why will God not just leave him alone and let him die. Clearly Ps. 8 is a correction of Job here: "What is man, that You are mindful of him, and the son of man, that You care for him? For You have made him a little lower than the Angels, and crowned him with glory and honour. You make him ruler over the works of Your hands... Yahweh our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!". As noted on Job 6:1, the precise words of Job 7:17-19 didn't fall from Job's mouth. They are placed in his mouth by an inspired author, quite possibly writing during the exile, well after Psalm 8 was written and had become well known. He may be making the point: 'Job would've been better to have the view of the psalmist in Psalm 8. Instead he has quite the opposite, and wrong, view'. We can see man's smallness positively- as a sign of God's amazing grace (Ps. 8); or, as Job wrongly did, a sign of His disinterest in man and how He treats men as if they are slaves to be used and abused at will. Truly, we make of God, and of life, what we will.
Job was aware of the promises to Abraham, and he uses the same word used of how the name of Abraham and his seed would be magnified (Gen. 12:2; 19:19). But in his depression and suffering, he didn't want this, just as the exiles didn't. They too had to be reminded that God would magnify Himself through them (s.w. Ez. 38:23; Joel 2:21; Mal. 1:5) just as He finally did through Job.
That You should set Your mind on him- "Hast thou considered (lit. 'set your heart upon') My servant Job..?" (Job 2:3 AV) God asked satan initially. Later Job complains to God "what is man, that You should magnify him? that You should set Your mind on him? (lit. 'consider him')". Thus Job sees God- whom he probably conceived of as an Angel- as considering him, whilst we are told earlier that satan / the adversary was told to do this. The human satan considering Job would not in itself have brought the trials, the Angel representative of the Satan did; Job would not have complained so bitterly to God about a human being 'considering' him. See on Job 1:6.
These words are quoted and reinterpreted by David in Psalm 8. Instead of remaining awed by man's smallness, David sees the huge potential that there is in being man- to be lord of all creation. Just as he had been exalted through his faith that he could conquer Goliath, so could all men be, if they are men as God intended. And as Paul shows, this has already been exemplified in the glorification of the Lord Jesus. We are not therefore to wallow in the smallness of humanity but to glory in our potential. We who are "babies and sucklings", so weak and vulnerable, gurgling and muttering incoherently, can utter perfect praise; and be lords of heavens, sea and earth. The Son of Man has shown us the path to that glory, having been one of us, of our nature. That fact shows us what it is and what it can be to be human, and for all time shows the potential within man. This is the answer to the question "What is man?". This is not so much a lament of man's smallness, weakness and vulnerability, although on one level it is that; rather is it a rhetorical question, the answer showing us what great potential there is for man who believes as David did. Likewise "What [or 'who'] is... the Son of Man...?" is answered in the achievement and person of the Lord Jesus. "What is the Son of Man?" leads to the answer: "The son of God". David's question is in fact a reply to Job's depressed statements about man in Job 7:16,17: "I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath. What is man, that You should magnify him, that You should set Your mind on him". David is showing that man is so much more than Job's view here, in depression, that man is nothing and better off dead than alive.
Job 7:18 that You should visit him every morning, and test him every
moment?-
Job 7:19 How long will You not look away from me, nor leave me alone until
I swallow down my spittle?- Again Job connects the eyes of God with
his sufferings, asking God to look away from him, to thereby end the
sufferings. And the eyes of God were His Angels, representing the Satan in
the court of heaven (Job 1:6).
Job 7:20 If I have sinned, what do I do to You, You watcher of men?-
GNB "Are you harmed by my sin, you
jailer?". This isn't far from cursing God as his wife advised and as satan
predicted he would. We know from the prologue that God watched Job
so carefully and positively. But Job sees those eyes as the eyes of a
cruel jailer. Job is full of self justification, as noted on :11. He now argues that the
vastness of God means that He shouldn't be so sensitive to human sin. We
marvel at God's total justification of Job, His imputation of
righteousness, when He later states that Job had spoken rightly about Him
(Job 42:7,8; although that statement may simply refer to Job's
repentance). "You watcher of men" is yet another reference
to God's
angel-eyes ever watching and noting sin; see on :19. But the idea is
equally as AV "preserver" or 'keeper'. He didn't want that preserving or
watching in his depression, as the exiles didn't; but the promise of the
prophets was that God was indeed watching / preserving, in order to
restore them- just as He did with Job (s.w. Is. 42:6; 49:8; Jer. 31:6).
Why
have You set me as an archer’s target for You, so that I am a burden to
myself?-
Eliphaz blames Job's troubles upon the “sons of Resheph” (Job 5:7); but
Job’s response is that the source of the evil in his life is ultimately
from God and not any such being. Eliphaz there speaks of how man’s
trouble comes “as the sons of Resheph fly upwards”. Resheph was known as
“the lord of the arrow” and the Ugaritic tablets associate him with
archery (William J. Fulco, The Canaanite God Resep
(New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society, 1976)). We would therefore be
justified in reading in an ellipsis here: man’s trouble comes “as the
[arrows of] the sons of Resheph fly upwards”. Job’s response is that “The
arrows of the Almighty are in me” (Job 6:4), and he lament that God
is an archer using him as his target for practice (Job 7:20; 16:12,13).
Job refuses to accept Eliphaz’s explanation that Job is a victim of
Resheph’s arrows. For Job, if God is “the Almighty” then there is no space
left for Resheph. Each blow he received, each arrow strike, was from God
and not Resheph.
Job 7:21 Why do You not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity?-
Job has picked up false guilt from Eliphaz. He initially denied he had sinned. Now he assumes that he must have sinned. So he asks God to forgive him. He began to feel before God how Eliphaz wrongly thought of him. We know from the prologue that God considered that Job hadn't sinned. We too can so easily take on false guilt and live unaware of how God counts us as righteous by grace. And there is such a thing as a man admitting he has done things he was accused of, when in fact he was innocent. Not as part of a 'deal', but because he genuinely is overcome by false guilt that has been laid upon him. This is now being increasingly recognized within the judicial system. Job's response is so psychologically credible. On one hand, he responds strongly against the friends' claim he is suffering because he has sinned. He insists this isn't the case. He is innocent. He shouts "Rubbish!" at them. But in the next breath, he is coming before God and telling Him that he is indeed a terrible sinner. When we know from the prologue that that wasn't what God thought of him. We see it in life, all the time. And probably in ourselves at some points in our lives. The New Testament teaching of justification by faith through grace ought to save us from this. And the Holy Spirit convicts us of our actual sins, and that alone is the conviction we must respond to.
Job argues as if God can just do this anyway; but he fails to appreciate the role of repentance. And this is a major theme of the book, and a meaning of the very name "Job".
For now shall I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be- Job expected his death to come at any moment (AV "Thou shalt seek me in the morning"). He felt that death would mean that no matter how hard God searched, He would not find Job. But Job was to be taught that God is the God of resurrection and final judgment, and therefore death is no escape from Him.
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