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Commentary on Job 7 verses 17–21
Job here reasons with God,
I. Concerning his dealings with man in general (Job 7:17, Job 7:18): What is man, that thou shouldst magnify him? This may be looked upon either, 1. As a passionate reflection upon the proceedings of divine justice; as if the great God did diminish and disparage himself in contending with man. "Great men think it below them to take cognizance of those who are much their inferiors so far as to reprove and correct their follies and indecencies; why then does God magnify man, by visiting him, and trying him, and making so much ado about him? Why will he thus pour all his forces upon one that is such an unequal match for him? Why will he visit him with afflictions, which, like a quotidian ague, return as duly and constantly as the morning light, and try, every moment, what he can bear?" We mistake God, and the nature of his providence, if we think it any lessening to him to take notice of the meanest of his creatures. Or, 2. As a pious admiration of the condescensions of divine grace, like that, Psa 8:4; Psa 144:3. He owns God's favour to man in general, even when he complains of his own particular troubles. "What is man, miserable man, a poor, mean, weak creature, that thou, the great and glorious God, shouldst deal with him as thou dost? What is man," (1.) "That thou shouldst put such honour upon him, shouldst magnify him, by taking him into covenant and communion with thyself?" (2.) "That thou shouldst concern thyself so much about him, shouldst set thy heart upon him, as dear to thee, and one that thou hast a kindness for?" (3.) "That thou shouldst visit him with thy compassions every morning, as we daily visit a particular friend, or as the physician visits his patients every morning to help them?" (4.) "That thou shouldst try him, shouldst feel his pulse and observe his looks, every moment, as in care about him and jealous over him?" That such a worm of the earth as man is should be the darling and favourite of heaven is what we have reason for ever to admire.
II. Concerning his dealings with him in particular. Observe,
1.The complaint he makes of his afflictions, which he here aggravates, and (as we are all too apt to do) makes the worst of, in three expressions: - (1.) That he was the butt to God's arrows: "Thou hast set me as a mark against thee," Job 7:20. "My case is singular, and none is shot at as I am." (2.) That he was a burden to himself, ready to sink under the load of his own life. How much delight soever we take in ourselves God can, when he pleases, make us burdens to ourselves. What comfort can we take in ourselves if God appear against us as an enemy and we have not comfort in him. (3.) That he had no intermission of his griefs (Job 7:19): "How long will it be ere thou cause thy rod to depart from me, or abate the rigour of the correction, at least for so long as that I may swallow down my spittle?" It should seem, Job's distemper lay much in his throat, and almost choked him, so that he could not swallow his spittle. He complains (Job 30:18) that it bound him about like the collar of his coat. "Lord," says he, "wilt not thou give me some respite, some breathing time?" Job 9:18.
2.The concern he is in about his sins. The best men have sin to complain of, and the better they are the more they will complain of it. (1.) He ingenuously owns himself guilty before God: I have sinned. God had said of him that he was a perfect and an upright man; yet he says of himself, I have sinned. Those may be upright who yet are not sinless; and those who are sincerely penitent are accepted, through a Mediator, as evangelically perfect. Job maintained, against his friends, that he was not a hypocrite, not a wicked man; and yet he owned to his God that he had sinned. If we have been kept from gross acts of sin, it does not therefore follow that we are innocent. The best must acknowledge, before God, that they have sinned. His calling God the observer, or preserver, of men, may be looked upon as designed for an aggravation of his sin: "Though God has had his eye upon me, his eye upon me for good, yet I have sinned against him." When we are in affliction it is seasonable to confess sin, as the procuring cause of our affliction. Penitent confessions would drown and silence passionate complaints. (2.) He seriously enquires how he may make his peace with God: "What shall I do unto thee, having done so much against thee?" Are we convinced that we have sinned, and are we brought to own it? We cannot but conclude that something must be done to prevent the fatal consequences of it. The matter must not rest as it is, but some course must be taken to undo what has been ill done. And, if we are truly sensible of the danger we have run ourselves into, we shall be willing to do any thing, to take a pardon upon any terms; and therefore shall be inquisitive as to what we shall do (Mic 6:6, Mic 6:7), what we shall do to God, not to satisfy the demands of his justice (that is done only by the Mediator), but to qualify ourselves for the tokens of his favour, according to the tenour of the gospel-covenant. In making this enquiry it is good to eye God as the preserver or Saviour of men, not their destroyer. In our repentance we must keep up good thoughts of God, as one that delights not in the ruin of his creatures, but would rather they should return and live. "Thou art the Saviour of men; be my Saviour, for I cast myself upon thy mercy." (3.) He earnestly begs for the forgiveness of his sins, Job 7:21. The heat of his spirit, as, on the one hand, it made his complaints the more bitter, so, on the other hand, it made his prayers the more lively and importunate; as here: "Why dost thou not pardon my transgression? Art thou not a God of infinite mercy, that art ready to forgive? Hast not thou wrought repentance in me? Why then dost thou not give me the pardon of my sin, and make me to hear the voice of that joy and gladness?" Surely he means more than barely the removing of his outward trouble, and is herein earnest for the return of God's favour, which he complained of the want of, Job 6:4. "Lord, pardon my sins, and give me the comfort of that pardon, and then I can easily bear my afflictions," Mat 9:2; Isa 33:24. When the mercy of God pardons the transgression that is committed by us the grace of God takes away the iniquity that reigns in us. Wherever God removes the guilt of sin he breaks the power of sin. (4.) To enforce his prayer for pardon he pleads the prospect he had of dying quickly: For now shall I sleep in the dust. Death will lay us in the dust, will lay us to sleep there, and perhaps presently, now in a little time. Job had been complaining of restless nights, and that sleep departed from his eyes (Job 7:3, Job 7:4, Job 7:13, Job 7:14); but those who cannot sleep on a bed of down will shortly sleep in a bed of dust, and not be scared with dreams nor tossed to and fro: "Thou shalt seek me in the morning, to show me favour, but I shall not be; it will be too late then. If my sins be not pardoned while I live, I am lost and undone for ever." Note, The consideration of this, that we must shortly die, and perhaps may die suddenly, should make us all very solicitous to get our sins pardoned and our iniquity taken away.
What does Job mean when he says, “What shall I be able to do for you?” What should I do in order to expiate my fault, in order to be reconciled with you? “O you who understand the human mind, why did you make me to be your accuser?” Job speaks this way not because he accuses God—God forbid!—but because what has happened to him raises a serious accusation against God. That is why he says, “You who understand the human mind.” Even if they do not speak, you know their secret thoughts and all their intimate reflections, “such a righteous man has suffered such tremendous misfortunes!” But Job does not have the attitude of a man who tries to justify himself. In fact, he has not said, “I am righteous.” Rather, they are deeply concerned about me, and that is why they have complained against you because of my trials.
51. Observe how he confesses the ill that he has done, but the good that he should present to God in compensation, he no where can find, in that all virtue whatever of human practice is without power to wash out the guilt of sin, except His mercifulness in sparing foster it, and not His justice in judging press hard upon it. Whence it is well said by the Psalmist, Because Thy mercy is better than the life; [Ps. 63, 3] in that howsoever innocent it may seem to be, yet with the strict Judge our life doth not set us free, if the lovingkindness of His mercy loose not to it the debt of its guilt. Or indeed when it is said, What shall I do unto Thee? it is plainly, shown us that those very good things, which we are commanded to practise, are not a gain to Him that imposes the command, but to ourselves. Whence it is said again by the Psalmist, My goodness extendeth not unto Thee. [Ps. 16, 2] Now the abjectness of our destitution is set forth, when God is called the ‘Preserver of men,’ in that if His preserving hand defend us not in the face of the snares of the secret adversary, the eye of our heedfulness sleeps on watch, as the Psalmist again bears record, who saith, Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. [Ps. 127, 1] For it is through ourselves, that we have been brought to the ground, but to rise again by our own strength is beyond our ability. The fault of our own will laid us low once, but the punishment of our fault sinks us worse day by day. We strive by the efforts of our earnest endeavours, to lift ourselves to the uprightness we have lost, but we are kept down by the weight of our just dues. And hence it is fitly added, Why hast Thou set me opposite to Thee, so that I am a burthen to myself?
52. Then did God ‘set man opposite to Him,’ when man forsook God by sinning. For being taken captive by the persuasions of the Serpent, he became the enemy of Him, Whose precepts he despised. But the righteous Creator ‘set man opposite to Himself,’ in that He accounted him an enemy by pride. And this very oppositeness of sin is itself made a weight of punishment to man, that he being wrongly free, might serve his own corruption, who while serving rightly exulted in the freedom of incorruption. For quitting the healthful stronghold of humility, he was brought by growing proud to the yoke of infirmity, and in erecting only bowed down the neck of the heart, in that he who refused to submit to the behests of God, prostrated himself beneath his own necessities; which we shall show the better, if we set forth those burthens, first of the flesh and afterwards of the spirit, which he is made subject to after being cast down to the ground.
53. For to say nothing of this, that he is liable to pains, that he gasps with fever; the very state of our body, which is called health, is straitened by its own sickness. For it wastes with idleness, it faints with work; failing with not eating, it is refreshed by food so as to hold up; going heavily with sustenance, it is relieved by abstinence, so as to be vigorous; it is bathed in water, not to be dry; it is wiped with towels, not by that very bathing to be too wet; it is enlivened by labour, that it may not be dulled by repose; it is refreshed by repose, that it faint not under the exertion of labour; worn with watching, it is recruited by sleep; oppressed with sleep, it is roused to activity by watching, lest it be worse wearied by its own rest; it is covered with clothing, lest it be pierced by the hardship of cold; fainting under the heat it sought, it is invigorated by the blowing of the air. And whereas it meets with annoyances from the very quarter whence it sought to shelter itself from annoyances, being badly wounded, so to say, it sickens by its own cure. Therefore fevers set aside and pains not in action, our very breath itself is sickness, whereunto there is never wanting the necessity of administering a cure. Since whatever the comforts we seek out for occasion of life, we as it were meet with so many medicines of our sickness; but the very medicine itself too is turned into a sore, in that attaching ourselves a little too long to the remedy we sought, we are more brought down in that which we prudently provide for our refreshment. Thus was presumption to be amended, thus was pride to be laid low. For whereas we once took to us a high spirit, so every day we carry the mud that runneth down.
54. Our very mind too itself being banished from the secure delight of interior secresy, is now beguiled by hope, now tormented by fear; one while cast down by grief, at another time made light by a false mirth; it obstinately attaches itself to transitory objects, and is continually afflicted by the loss of them, in that it is also continually undergoing change by a course that carries it away; and being made subject to things changeable, it is also made to be at odds with its own self. For seeking what it has not got, it anxiously obtains it, and so soon as it has begun to possess the same, is sick of having obtained what it sought after. Oftentimes it loves what it once despised, and despises what, it used to love. It learns by dint of pains what are the things of eternity, but it forgets them in a moment, if it cease to take pains. It takes a long time to seek, that it may find, but a little concerning the things above, but speedily falling, back into its wonted ways, not even for a little space does it hold on in the things it has found. Desiring to be instructed, with difficulty it gets the better of its ignorance, and being so instructed it has a harder contest against the pride of knowledge; with difficulty it subjects to itself the usurping power of its fleshly part, yet it is still subject to the images of sin within, the works whereof it has already in vanquishing bound down without. It raises itself in quest of its Creator, but being thrown back, it is bewildered by the beguiling mist of corporeal attachments [h]. It desires to survey itself, and to see how being incorporeal it bears rule over the body, and it cannot. It asks in a wonderful way what it is unable to answer itself, and remaining ignorant is at a loss under that, which it inquires with a wise purpose. Viewing itself as large and scanty at once, it knows nothing how to form a true estimate of itself, in that if it were not large it would not be seeking matters of so deep enquiry, and again if it were not little, it would at least find that which it asks of itself.
55. Well therefore is it said, Thou hast set me opposite to Thee, so that I am a burthen to myself, in that whilst man being banished is both subject to annoyances in the flesh, and to perplexities in the mind, surely he carries about his own self as a grievous burthen. On every side he is beset with sicknesses, on every side he is hard bestead with infirmities, that he who, having abandoned God, thought to suffice to himself for his repose, might find nought in himself but a turmoil of disquietude, and might try to fly from himself so found, but having set his Creator at nought, might not have where to fly. The burthens of which state of infirmity that wise man rightly regarding, exclaims, An heavy yoke is upon the Sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of their mother's womb, till the day that they return to the mother of all things. [Ecclus. 40, 1] But blessed Job regarding these things, and seeking with groans wherefore they were so ordered, does not reproach justice, but interrogates mercy; that in asking he may himself in self-abasement deal a blow to that, which the Divine pity might in sparing alter. As if he said in plain words; ‘Wherefore dost Thou despise man set as in opposition to Thee, Who, I am assured, wouldest not that even he should perish whom Thou art thought to despise?’ Whence he proceeds in a right way both to express humility in confession, and to subjoin the voice of free inquiry.
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SUMMARY
Job 7:20 encapsulates the raw anguish and profound theological crisis of a man overwhelmed by inexplicable suffering. In this desperate cry, Job simultaneously acknowledges a general human sinfulness and challenges God's apparent shift from a benevolent "preserver of men" to a relentless adversary who has singled him out as a target, making his very existence an unbearable burden. This verse powerfully articulates Job's bewilderment at his afflictions, questioning divine justice while wrestling with the crushing weight of his own perceived worthlessness.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Job 7:20 masterfully employs several literary devices to convey Job's profound despair and theological struggle. Irony is central, particularly in Job's address to God as the "preserver of men" even as he perceives God as his active tormentor. This stark contrast underscores the paradox of his suffering. Rhetorical Questions ("what shall I do unto thee?" and "why hast thou set me as a mark against thee?") are used not to elicit answers, but to express Job's utter helplessness, confusion, and desperate challenge to divine justice. The verse also utilizes a powerful Metaphor when Job states, "thou hast set me as a mark against thee," vividly portraying himself as a target for God's relentless assault. Finally, the phrase "so that I am a burden to myself" serves as a form of Hyperbole, expressing the overwhelming and unbearable nature of his suffering, where life itself has become an intolerable weight, leading to profound self-loathing and a desire for non-existence. The entire passage is a poignant example of Lament, a common biblical genre for expressing deep sorrow and complaint to God.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Job 7:20 stands as a poignant testament to the human experience of profound suffering and the struggle to reconcile it with a benevolent God. It delves into the mystery of divine justice, challenging simplistic notions of retribution and prompting deeper theological reflection on the nature of God's sovereignty and human suffering. Job's raw honesty in bringing his accusations and despair directly to God underscores the biblical precedent for authentic lament, demonstrating that faith is not the absence of doubt or anger, but the courage to bring even our most difficult questions before the Divine. This verse reminds us that God is big enough to handle our accusations and our pain, and that true relationship often involves wrestling with profound mysteries. It also foreshadows the later revelation in the book of Job that God's ways are beyond human comprehension, yet always rooted in His ultimate wisdom and power, even when they appear contradictory to human experience.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Job 7:20 offers profound insights for those navigating seasons of inexplicable suffering or spiritual confusion. It validates the human experience of lament, reminding us that it is not only permissible but often necessary to voice our deepest pain, anger, and questions directly to God. Job's honesty, even in accusation, models a radical transparency in prayer, inviting us to bring our unfiltered emotions before the One who truly sees and understands. This verse challenges us to move beyond simplistic explanations for suffering and to embrace the mystery inherent in God's ways, trusting that even when He seems to be our adversary, His ultimate character as the "preserver of men" remains unchanged. It encourages us to persist in dialogue with God, even when we feel like a "burden to myself," knowing that our wrestling can ultimately lead to a deeper, albeit not fully comprehended, understanding of His sovereignty and love, as it eventually did for Job. In our own suffering, we are invited to bring our full selves to God, finding solace in His presence even amidst our unanswered questions.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Did Job truly believe he had sinned, or was he just saying it?
Answer: Job's declaration, "I have sinned," in Job 7:20 is complex and open to interpretation. It's unlikely a confession of specific wrongdoing that would warrant his immense suffering, as both God and the narrator have already affirmed Job's blamelessness and uprightness (Job 1:1 and Job 1:8). Instead, it's more likely a rhetorical statement born out of desperation. Job is grasping for any possible explanation for his plight, even if it means acknowledging a general human sinfulness or a hypothetical transgression he might have committed unknowingly. It could also be a desperate attempt to appease a seemingly hostile God, or a cynical remark reflecting his belief that God is treating him as if he were a great sinner, regardless of his actual innocence.
How can God be a "preserver of men" if He allows such suffering?
Answer: This is the central theological paradox that Job grapples with throughout the book, and Job 7:20 articulates it directly. From Job's limited human perspective, God's actions seem contradictory to His character as the "preserver." The book of Job ultimately does not provide a simple answer to the problem of suffering, but it does affirm God's absolute sovereignty and wisdom, which transcend human understanding (Job 38-41). While God allows suffering, His ultimate purposes are often hidden, and His nature as a preserver and sustainer remains true, even when our experience contradicts our expectations. The New Testament further clarifies this by revealing that suffering can be redemptive, refining, and part of a larger divine plan for good (Romans 8:28 and James 1:2-4).
Is it acceptable to question God as Job does?
Answer: Absolutely. The book of Job, and particularly Job 7:20, provides a powerful biblical precedent for honest and even accusatory lament before God. Job's raw, unfiltered questions and complaints are not condemned; rather, God ultimately affirms Job's integrity and his willingness to speak truthfully about Him, even in his confusion (Job 42:7). The Bible encourages us to bring our whole selves, including our doubts, anger, and pain, into our relationship with God. This kind of authentic wrestling, rather than suppressing difficult emotions, can lead to a deeper and more resilient faith, as seen in Job's ultimate restoration and renewed understanding of God's majesty (Job 42:5).
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Job's anguished cry in Job 7:20 finds its ultimate and profound fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Job, an innocent man, felt targeted by God, a "mark" against Him, and a "burden to myself" due to inexplicable suffering. Yet, Jesus, the only truly innocent and blameless man (Hebrews 4:15), willingly became the ultimate "mark" for humanity's sin. On the cross, He was "set as a mark" not for His own transgression, but to bear the judgment that was due to us (2 Corinthians 5:21). In His cry of dereliction, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46), Jesus experienced the profound abandonment that Job only perceived, becoming a "burden to Himself" and bearing the crushing weight of the world's sin. Through His suffering, the true "Preserver of men" (Colossians 1:17) absorbed the full curse of sin, offering redemption and eternal preservation to all who believe. Where Job wrestled with the mystery of suffering, Christ's cross provides the definitive answer, transforming the "mark" of judgment into the sign of ultimate love and salvation, so that we, who were truly burdened by sin, might find rest and life in Him (Matthew 11:28).