Job 7 - Introduction

VII.

In this chapter Job turns away from his friends to God, to whom he appeals for compassion (Job 7:1). He asks whether man hath not a campaign to serve upon earth. The English Version suggests a limited period; but it is apparently not so much that as what is required to be done in the period. “Hath not man a time of service upon earth? Is he not appointed to sorrow (Job 7:5), because his life is one of toil? Is not his life a life of servitude? and is he not like a very slave?” Job does not regret that man’s time is short upon earth, for he says that he longs eagerly for his end, but he regrets that it is so full of misery. The context, therefore, shows that it is the character of the appointed time, and not the shortness of it, that he laments.