TEXT [Commentary]

  4.   God vigilantly watches humans (7:11-21)

11 “I cannot keep from speaking.

I must express my anguish.

My bitter soul must complain.

12 Am I a sea monster or a dragon

that you must place me under guard?

13 I think, ‘My bed will comfort me,

and sleep will ease my misery,’

14 but then you shatter me with dreams

and terrify me with visions.

15 I would rather be strangled—

rather die than suffer like this.

16 I hate my life and don’t want to go on living.

Oh, leave me alone for my few remaining days.

17 “What are people, that you should make so much of us,

that you should think of us so often?

18 For you examine us every morning

and test us every moment.

19 Why won’t you leave me alone,

at least long enough for me to swallow!

20 If I have sinned, what have I done to you,

O watcher of all humanity?

Why make me your target?

Am I a burden to you?[*]

21 Why not just forgive my sin

and take away my guilt?

For soon I will lie down in the dust and die.

When you look for me, I will be gone.”

NOTES

7:15 rather die than suffer like this. Lit., “death rather than these bones” (cf. Ps 22:17). Bones is a graphic description of the present state of Job’s life. The emendation of “bones” (‘atsemoth [TH6106, ZH6795]) to “pains” (‘atsevoth [TH6089A, ZH6776]), adopted by many commentators, is unwarranted.

7:16 I hate my life. The object for the verb “hate” (ma’as [TH3988, ZH4415]) must be supplied, as in other instances with this verb (34:33; 36:5; 42:6). In this instance, the object is clearly Job’s life (cf. 9:21), which has now been reduced to bones.

7:20 Am I a burden to you? This is no doubt the correct translation, though the Heb. text actually asks, “Am I a burden to myself?” Though some have preferred the Heb. reading as having more impact, it is textually questionable. The Gr. translator had the words “to you” before him (Orlinsky 1964:66). The best explanation for the textual discrepancy is that of rabbinic tradition, which maintains that this was one of eighteen deliberate “changes of the scribes” (tiqqune sopherim) in order to avoid any possible irreverence in reference to God.

COMMENTARY [Text]

In times of distress it may seem that God has forgotten us, that we have escaped his notice; such, at least, were the thoughts of the Israelites in captivity (Isa 40:27). Their plea was that God would turn his attention to them, that he would rise up as in the days of old and slay the great monster of the waters (Isa 51:9-10), just as he had slain the monster of the primeval floods before Creation or that of the Egyptians who threatened the lives of his people. For Job, however, the problem was that God was indeed watching him, and that with scrupulous vigilance. It was as if Job were the monster of the waters that threatened all created order, one who must be guarded at all times. Job asked that God would leave him alone for the brief moments of life still left to him. Job gives two reasons for this astonishing request (Clines 1989:187): the misery and the brevity of his life; his misery was due to God relentlessly attacking him. What Job desired was a little less attention from God; only a few days remained for him to enjoy some respite.

In this first section of his plea for relief, Job again turns his attention to his bed (7:13-14). The place that should offer him rest is one where he again receives the attention he does not desire. Instead of providing rest, God disturbed him with visions. Job could have been terrified by nightmares or visions from the stress of his terrible ordeal, but he referred to visions as something given by God. There is only one frightening vision reported in the book—the one shared by Eliphaz in his first speech. That vision testifies to the fearful truth that Job affirms; he cannot live in a manner so righteous that he can avoid disasters like those he has experienced. It is not the vision itself but the message of the vision that is so terrifying. The word that Job had received from God was not at all comforting. Job could bear this no longer; again he complained that his days were a vapor, not only in terms of their brevity but in terms of their utterly irreversible vanity.

Job knew some psalms and reflected on them, but they were not a comfort to him. He continued his protest in a bitter parody of Psalm 8, a poem that extols human dignity. Who are mortals that God should be mindful of them (Ps 8:4)? As those made in God’s image, they are supposed to make known the majesty of God in all the earth (Ps 8:1, 9). For Job, the question of God’s attention to mortals has only to do with the fact that God can examine them every morning and test them every moment. God does not even leave them alone long enough to swallow their own spit. Why should Job be of such great interest to God? God may well be concerned about Job’s sin, but is this a reason why he should become God’s target? It is not that Job would consider sin to be trivial or a matter of indifference to God, nor is it that Job considers himself to be sinless. Job was simply protesting his suffering; God’s vigilant attention to him has been only suffering for him. He complained that his life would end in a moment, and he would lie in the dust where none give glory to God. His destiny with death is nothing but the empty conclusion of his futile life.