Job 7:16

I loathe [it],.... Or "them" (k), either his life, which was a weariness to him, or his bones, which were so painful and nauseous; or rather, "I am become loathsome", to himself, to his servants, and

I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity. I would not live alway - even if I could. A life of misery like mine is, a thing to be loathed, not desired. Vanity.

I loathe it, to wit, my life, last mentioned. I would not live alway in this world if I might, no, not in prosperity, for even such a life is but vanity, much less in this extremity of misery. Or, let me not live for ever, lingering in this miserable manner, as if thou wouldst not suffer me to die, but hadst a design to perpetuate my torments. Or, let me not live out mine age, or the full time of my life, which by the course of nature I might do; for so the Hebrew word olam is oft used; but cut me off, and that speedily. Let me alone, i.e. withdraw thy hand from me; either, 1. Thy supporting hand, which preserves my life, and suffer me to die; or rather, 2. Thy correcting hand, as this same phrase is used, 7:19. My days are vanity; either, 1. My life is in itself, and in its best estate, a most vain, unsatisfying, uncertain thing; do not add this evil to it to make it miserable. Or, 2. My life is a vain, decaying, and perishing thing, it will of itself quickly vanish and depart, and doth not need to be forced from me by such exquisite torments.

Job 7:16 I loathe [it]; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days [are] vanity.Ver. 16. I loathe it, I would not live alway] I loathe or abhor it, that is, my life, or I loathe them, that is, my bones, Job 7:15. "I would not live alway," that is, long in this world, and in this condition. Plotinus, the philosopher, held it a special mercy of God to men that they were mortal; and did not always live to labour under the miseries of this wretched life (Aug. de Civitate Dei, l. ix. c. 10). Cato professed, that if he might have his age renewed as the eagle’ s, so that he might be made young again, he would seriously refuse it (Cic. Cato Major). How much better might Job say thus, since the righteous hath hope in his death; and might well take up that of the poet, Utque adeone mori miserum est? The days of the best are so full of evil both of sin and pain, that it is good they are not fuller of days; if they should have length of life added to heaps of sorrows, and perpetuity with all their misery, how miserable were they! Christ promiseth it as a point of favour of his, that the days of trouble should be shortened, Matthew 24:22, and that he may put an end to the age, he dispatched away the generations with all the convenient speed that may be. Therefore let me alone] Some read thus, I cannot live for ever, or very long, therefore let me alone, that is, stop afflicting me, and let me go quietly to my grave, Psalms 39:13. Here one well observeth that the world and time, while they continue, are always ceasing; and therefore have their denomination from this word, which signifieth to cease, Quod cito cessat et deficit (Mercer in Pagnin.). For my days are vanity] Hebel, a puff of wind, or a bubble on the water. Man’ s body is a bubble, his soul the wind that filleth it. The bubble riseth higher and higher, till at last it breaketh; so doth the body rise from infancy to youth, from youth to age, &c., till at length it cracketh and dissolveth. The life of a man is a vain life. This Job often beats upon, and why, see the note.

(16) I loathe it—i.e., the thought of self-destruction; or, I loathe my life; or, according to others (see the margin), I waste away: this, however, is perhaps less probable. Then the thought comes with a ray of comfort, “I shall not live for ever;” for this seems more in accordance with the context than the Authorised Version: “I would not live always.”

Verse 16. I loathe it; I would not live alway] Life, in such circumstances, is hateful to me; and though I wish for long life, yet if length of days were offered to me with the sufferings which I now undergo, I would despise the offer and spurn the boon. Mr. Good is not satisfied with our common version, and has adopted the following, which in his notes he endeavours to illustrate and defend: Ver. 15. So that my soul coveteth suffocation, And death in comparison with my suffering. Ver. 16. No longer would I live! O, release me! How are my days vanity!

16. So keenly does he realize the misery of his condition and the intolerable painfulness of his life, that he breaks out into a passionate cry that he hates and is weary of life—I loathe it. The object of his loathing is not expressed, but it is rather life in general, as the words, I would not live alway, indicate, than what he calls his “bones,” cf. Job 10:21. No emphasis falls on alway, the phrase “I would not live alway” is rather an exclamation of revulsion, meaning I desire not life. let me alone] i. e. cease from paining me with such afflictions. Job like his friends regarded his sufferings as inflicted directly by the hand of God, and if God would leave him his pains would cease. The words here are hardly a prayer, but something like an imperious command, to such a height of boldness is the sufferer driven by the keenness of his pains. The last words, “for my days are vanity,” support his demand that God would let him alone, by a reference to the shortness of his life; he seeks a little respite ere he die, cf. Job 10:20 seq. This reference to his life as “vanity” or a breath forms the natural transition to the next question.

I loathe it - I loathe my life as it is now. It has become a burden and I desire to part with it, and to go down to the grave. There is, however, considerable variety in the interpretation of this.

16. I loathe it — ξΰρϊι. Some (Conant and Renan) would render it “waste away,” “dissolve,” 2 Corinthians 5:1 : its more ordinary meaning, to “loathe,” despise, is better here. Thus Delitzsch, etc.