20 Have I sinned, what do I unto thee, thou Observer of men? Why hast thou set me as an object of assault for thee, so that I am become a burden to myself?
He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
Thy righteousness is like the high mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: thou, Jehovah, preservest man and beast.
Jehovah, God of hosts, how long will thine anger smoke against the prayer of thy people?
For thou wilt make them turn their back; thou wilt make ready thy bowstring against their face.
He will sing before men, and say, I have sinned, and perverted what was right, and it hath not been requited to me;
I am clean without transgression; I am pure, and there is no iniquity in me;
Thou art the Same, thou alone, Jehovah, who hast made the heaven of heavens, and all their host, the earth and all that is therein, the seas and all that is therein. And thou quickenest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.
I was at rest, but he hath shattered me; he hath taken me by the neck and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark. His arrows encompass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground. He breaketh me with breach upon breach; he runneth upon me like a mighty man.
For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth;
Be it that I am wicked, why then do I labour in vain? If I washed myself with snow-water, and cleansed my hands in purity, Then wouldest thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes would abhor me.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 7
Commentary on Job 7 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 7
Job, in this chapter, goes on to express the bitter sense he had of his calamities and to justify himself in his desire of death.
Job 7:1-6
Job is here excusing what he could not justify, even his inordinate desire of death. Why should he not wish for the termination of life, which would be the termination of his miseries? To enforce this reason he argues,
Job 7:7-16
Job, observing perhaps that his friends, though they would not interrupt him in his discourse, yet began to grow weary, and not to heed much what he said, here turns to God, and speaks to him. If men will not hear us, God will; if men cannot help us, he can; for his arm is not shortened, neither is his ear heavy. Yet we must not go to school to Job here to learn how to speak to God; for, it must be confessed, there is a great mixture of passion and corruption in what he here says. But, if God be not extreme to mark what his people say amiss, let us also make the best of it. Job is here begging of God either to ease him or to end him. He here represents himself to God,
Job 7:17-21
Job here reasons with God,