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Job
Chapter
07
{Chapters
4-14: The First Debate}
{Chapters
4-7: Debate with Eliphaz (Job's Reply Continues here)}
1``Is
there not an appointed time to man upon earth?
Are not his days also like the days of a hired man {sakiyr}?
2~~Like
a slave looking for the evening shadows,
or
as a hired man looking eagerly for his wages . . . 3~~
so
I {Job} have been allotted months of futility,
and
nights of misery have been assigned to me.
{Note: This means that it has taken Job's friends over a month before they came to see him. Job has had at least 6 weeks of intensive pain.}
4~~When
I {Job} lie down, I think,
'How
long before I get up?'
The
night drags on
and
I toss until dawn.
5~~My
body is clothed with worms and scabs.
My
skin is broken, and festering.
6``My
days are swifter than a weaver's loom {'ereg},
and
are spent without hope/expectation {for improvement}.
7``Remember/'recall
to your mind' {zakar - imperative - an order}
that
my life {chay} is wind/breath/spirit {ruwach}.
My eye shall no more see good.
8``The
eye of him that has seen me
shall
see me no more.
Your eyes are upon me, and I am not.
9``As
the cloud is consumed and vanish away
so
he that goes down to the grave shall come up no more.
10``
He shall return no more to his house.
Neither shall his place know him any more.
11``Therefore
I {Job} will not keep quiet/'refrain my mouth'.
I
will speak in the anguish of my spirit {ruwach}.
I
will keep on complaining {siyach}
in
the bitterness of my soul {nephesh}.
12``
Am I a sea, or a crocodile/whale {tanniyn},
that
you set a watch over me?
13-14``When
I say,
'My
bed shall comfort me,
my
couch shall ease my complaint.', 14``
then
you scare me with dreams,
and
terrify me through {telling me of your} visions
{see Job 4:16 and following}.
15``So
that my soul {nephesh}
chooses
strangling/suffocation, and death
rather
than my 'physical body' {`etsem}.
16``
I {Job} despise/loathe it.
I
desire not to live forever
{meaning in a physical body}.
Let me alone . . . for my days are futile.
17`` What is man, that you should magnify/'make him a great thing'?
And that you should set your 'mentality {right lobe}'/heart upon him?
18``That
you should visit him every morning,
and
scrutinize/try/test/prove him every moment?
19``How long before you not gaze on me?
Nor let me alone till I am swallowed up?
20`` I {Job} have sinned {chata' - used for 'known sins'}.
What shall I do?
O you observer/guarder of men . . .
Why
have you set/established me
as
a mark/'object of assault' against you,
so
that I am a burden/'load too heavy to carry' to myself?
21``And
why do you not
pardon
my transgression {pesha` - used for 'unknown sins'},
and
take away my 'consequence of the guilt'/iniquity {`avon}?
For
now I shall 'die'
{idiom: literally 'I shall sleep in the dust'}.
And
you will look for me in the morning,
but
I shall not be.
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