BibleInTonguesWEB
Job 7
Job's speech turns from the friends to God directly. Life is forced labor, nights of tossing, flesh crusted with worms, days swifter than a weaver's shuttle and spent without hope. He insists the grave is one-way: the cloud that vanishes does not come back up. Watch how he twists Psalm 8's praise inside out (vv. 17-20): if man is so small, why does God magnify him only to test him every morning and set him up as a target?
- 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 who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,
- 3
so I am made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.
- 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 is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
- 6
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
- 7
Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good.
- 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
As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol will come up no more.
- 10
He will return no more to his house, neither will his place know him any more.
- 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, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?
- 13
When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me. My couch will ease my complaint,’
- 14
then you scare me with dreams and terrify me through visions,
- 15
so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.
- 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 should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,
- 18
that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?
- 19
How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?
- 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
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.”
- 1
CIERTAMENTE tiempo limitado tiene el hombre sobre la tierra, y sus días son como los días del jornalero.
- 2
Como el siervo anhela la sombra, y como el jornalero espera el reposo de su trabajo:
- 3
Así poseo yo meses de vanidad, y noches de trabajo me dieron por cuenta.
- 4
Cuando estoy acostado, digo: ¿Cuándo me levantaré? Y mide mi corazón la noche, y estoy harto de devaneos hasta el alba.
- 5
Mi carne está vestida de gusanos, y de costras de polvo; mi piel hendida y abominable.
- 6
Y mis días fueron más ligeros que la lanzadera del tejedor, y fenecieron sin esperanza.
- 7
Acuérdate que mi vida es viento, y que mis ojos no volverán á ver el bien.
- 8
Los ojos de los que me ven, no me verán más: tus ojos sobre mí, y dejaré de ser.
- 9
La nube se consume, y se va: así el que desciende al sepulcro no subirá;
- 10
No tornará más á su casa, ni su lugar le conocerá más.
- 11
Por tanto yo no reprimiré mi boca; hablaré en la angustia de mi espíritu, y quejaréme con la amargura de mi alma.
- 12
¿Soy yo la mar, ó ballena, que me pongas guarda?
- 13
Cuando digo: Mi cama me consolará, mi cama atenuará mis quejas;
- 14
Entonces me quebrantarás con sueños, y me turbarás con visiones.
- 15
Y así mi alma tuvo por mejor el ahogamiento, y quiso la muerte más que mis huesos.
- 16
Aburríme: no he de vivir yo para siempre; déjame, pues que mis días son vanidad.
- 17
¿Qué es el hombre, para que lo engrandezcas, y que pongas sobre él tu corazón,
- 18
Y lo visites todas las mañanas, y todos los momentos lo pruebes?
- 19
¿Hasta cuándo no me dejarás, ni me soltarás hasta que trague mi saliva?
- 20
Pequé, ¿qué te haré, oh Guarda de los hombres? ¿por qué me has puesto contrario á ti, y que á mí mismo sea pesado?
- 21
¿Y por qué no quitas mi rebelión, y perdonas mi iniquidad? porque ahora dormiré en el polvo, y si me buscares de mañana, ya no seré.
A surveillance he wants to escape
The complaint here is not abandonment but the opposite: God watches too closely. Job calls him a watcher of men who will not even let him swallow his own spittle, guarding him as if he were the sea or a sea monster needing restraint.
The chapter ends on a quiet dare in verse 21: pardon me now, because tomorrow you will seek me and I will not be. The pressure of mortality, not theology, drives the request.
Context layers
Keep these closed by default and open them only when you want more context.
- BitternessIn Scripture bitterness is both a taste of grief (Naomi, Job, Hannah) and a root that can spread if untended (Hebrews 12:15). The Bible lets it be felt, then asks it be pulled.
- HopeWhat biblical hope means, how it differs from optimism, and which passages show its shape most clearly.
- ObedienceWhat obedience means in the Bible, how it relates to faith and love, and why it should not be confused with legalistic performance.
- Ruth 1:20Key passage connected to Bitterness.
- Lamentations 3:19Related through the topic "Bitterness in the Bible".
- Hebrews 12:14Related through the topic "Bitterness in the Bible".
- Ephesians 4:31Key passage connected to Bitterness.
- 1 Samuel 1:10Related through the topic "Bitterness in the Bible".
- Job 10:1Related through the topic "Bitterness in the Bible".
- Job 21:25Related through the topic "Bitterness in the Bible".
- Proverbs 14:10Related through the topic "Bitterness in the Bible".
Share a small range via:
/en/web/job/7/16-18
Or use the Passage link builder.