UNROLL
The hour before dawn over the flat-topped wall of a small stone town on a low rise, a last thin line of night cloud dissolving above it, under a calm, empty, deep-blue sky just paling.

The Book of

Job 7

Job speaks, still answering Eliphaz in round one. Then he stops talking to his friends and speaks to God for the first time.

21 verses≈ 3 min1 personBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1–3The testBlameless, stripped of everything, and his cry
  2. 4–14Round oneThe friends speak; Job answersChapter 7
  3. 15–21Round twoMy Redeemer lives
  4. 22–31Round threeThen wisdom, and Job's last defense
  5. 32–37ElihuA younger voice
  6. 38–41The LORD speaksOut of the whirlwind
  7. 42The endJob prays and is restored

Job Continues: Life Seems Futile

Job

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Job

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle

Reflect

Say it to God

From verse 7 Job stops talking about God and talks to Him. What have you been saying about God that you have not said to God? Write it to Him, in plain words.

Job
One small white cloud thinning to nothing over bare ocher hills at noon, already half gone, above an empty land under a pale clear sky.

Remember that my life is but a breath.

My eyes will never again see happiness.

The eye that beholds me will no longer see me.

You will look for me, but I will be no more.

As a cloud vanishes and is gone,

so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up.

He never returns to his house;

his place remembers him no more.

0:21

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Job

Remember that my life is but a breath.

Job 7:7

Job
Job

Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;

I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;

I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep,

that You must keep me under guard?

When I think my bed will comfort me

and my couch will ease my complaint,

then You frighten me with dreams

and terrify me with visions,

so that I would prefer strangling and death

over my life in this body.

I loathe my life! I would not live forever.

Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

Job

Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

Question

Quick question

Job measures his life against the things around him, and each one is gone in a moment.

What does Job say his days are swifter than?

Job
Job

What is man that You should exalt him,

that You should set Your heart upon him,

that You attend to him every morning,

and test him every moment?

Will You never look away from me,

or leave me alone to swallow my spittle?

If I have sinned, what have I done to You,

O watcher of mankind?

Why have You made me Your target,

so that I am a burden to You?

Why do You not pardon my transgression

and take away my iniquity?

For soon I will lie down in the dust;

You will seek me, but I will be no more.”

Job

What is man that You should exalt him

You’ve experienced

Job 7

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A verse to carry with you

Remember that my life is but a breath.

Job 7:7

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