Bible Commentary - Job 7

In this chapter, Job finishes his response to Eliphaz by recounting again his suffering.

This chapter is a continuation of the previous one. In the previous chapter, Job assailed his friends as being like a “false hope”, where he expected to find encouragement and comfort and instead only found criticism. In this chapter, Job does not directly address his friends again, but instead it seems like he goes back to his original topic which is complaining and speaking from his grief.

Breaking this chapter into three main sections, in verses 1-6 Job compares himself to a hired person waiting for his wages. In the same way, Job views himself as waiting for some kind of relief but without receiving it. Like a person in the night waiting for the morning, Job is waiting for relief, but not finding it.

Instead, he finds his life quickly vanishing, never to return (v. 7-10). This is the second, short section.

Lastly, in verses 11-21, Job addresses God directly (even though at first it might appear like Job is addressing his friends, this is clearly aimed at the LORD). Job wants to know why God is scrutinizing him, guarding him, or paying attention to mankind at all, and it seems like Job really is just asking for the LORD to leave him alone. Job believes that God is treating him like some kind of monster or wild animal that needs to be closely guarded, and that God’s hand is placed upon him like a heavy burden.

Taken as a whole, Job’s speech conveys the adversarial nature that he perceives between himself and God, while in the previous chapter he explained how his friends had become adversarial to him as well. Job isn’t even asking for restoration in his relationship with God because as far as I can tell, Job has never claimed or implied any kind of friendship with God. Job’s view is that God is some kind of distant power, like a king, who has the power to interfere in anyone’s life and for some reason, has singled out Job for abuse and punishment. Like I mentioned before, Job isn’t asking for God’s blessing or even his friendship, but simply to be left alone so he could live out his own life in privacy and peace.

In the next chapter, Job’s second friend Bildad takes his turn rebuking Job.