1 Isn’t each person consigned to forced labor i on earth?
Are not his days like those of a hired worker?
2 Like a slave he longs for shade;
like a hired worker he waits for his pay.
3 So I have been made to inherit months of futility,
and troubled nights have been assigned to me. j
4 When I lie down I think,
“When will I get up? ”
But the evening drags on endlessly,
and I toss and turn until dawn.
5 My flesh is clothed with maggots and encrusted with dirt.
My skin forms scabs and then oozes. k
6 My days pass more swiftly than a weaver’s shuttle;
they come to an end without hope. l
7 Remember that my life is but a breath.
My eye will never again see anything good. m
8 The eye of anyone who looks on me
will no longer see me.
Your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone. n
9 As a cloud fades away and vanishes,
so the one who goes down to Sheol o will never rise again.
10 He will never return to his house;
his hometown will no longer remember him. p
11 Therefore I will not restrain my mouth.
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12 Am I the sea ,q or a sea monster, r
that you keep me under guard?
13 When I say, “My bed will comfort me,
and my couch will ease my complaint,”
14 then you frighten me with dreams,
and terrify me with visions, s
15 so that I prefer strangling —
death rather than life in this body. ,t
16 I give up! I will not live forever.
Leave me alone, u for my days are a breath.
17 What is a mere human, that you think so highly of him
and pay so much attention to him? v
18 You inspect him every morning,
and put him to the test every moment. w
19 Will you ever look away from me,
or leave me alone long enough to swallow?
20 If I have sinned, what have I done to you,
Watcher of humanity?
Why have you made me your target, x
so that I have become a burden to you?
21 Why not forgive my sin
and pardon my iniquity? y
For soon I will lie down in the grave. z
You will eagerly seek me, but I will be gone. a
7:1–6. Job then turns away from addressing his friends and discloses his inner feelings in a soliloquy (7:1–6). Job uses the language of conscripted labor (see 1 Kg 5:13–14) to speak of God’s treatment of humans (7:1–2). The focus in the book is usually on the intensity of Job’s pain rather than its length in time; “months” (7:3) may be a general marker for the duration of Job’s distress as his life feels totally empty and useless. The maggot (7:5) is an image of decay, because maggots feed on decomposing corpses (Jb 21:26; cf. Is 14:11). The same term, which Job uses here to describe his physical affliction, is later employed by Bildad (25:6) in his final derogatory description of the human being, whom he dismisses as a maggot and a worm.
7:7–16. Although Job is unhappy with his friends, his real complaint is against God (7:7–21). In Gn 2:7, God breathes into Adam his breath or life force, but Job uses the language of breath in a very different way as an image of the transitory nature of human mortality (7:7–10). Like the psalmists of the imprecatory psalms, who call down divine condemnation on those who afflict them (e.g., Pss 58:6–8; 59:3–5), Job does not hold back when he expresses his bitter feelings to God (7:11). This, however, is a risky move, because the wisdom tradition teaches that the prudent person is restrained in speech (Pr 10:19; 17:27). Job, however, refuses to be muzzled, as the sea was (7:12; cf. Gn 1:21).
7:17–21. The psalmists frequently appeal to the Lord to watch protectively over Israel (Pss 12:7; 13:3; 25:20; 40:11; 61:7), but Job feels badgered by God’s unceasing scrutiny (7:17–19). In 6:4 Job complained that the arrows of the Almighty pierced him, and now he asks why God has treated him in this way (7:20). Assuming the basic validity of retribution theology, which says that punishment comes as a result of wickedness, Job asks what sin has justified this divine punishment. In the whole book Job never hears from God the reason for his adversity.