Mishlei, 13.
Chapter 7
7:1 Do not humans have forced labor upon the earth? Are not the days of humans like those hired out?
Job contends that human existence is not free at all. Individuals are compelled—in one way or another—to act by things out of their control, like a person drafted by a king to do royal work who is not free to avoid the king’s command. Such a situation is minimally worse than the “prisoners of starvation” who labor for wages so that they can eat.
In order to maintain gender neutrality, we have translated the second half of this verse in the plural rather than the singular. The word tzvah can have a military meaning as “troops” or a civilian meaning as “forced labor.” In this context, it means the latter.
Rashi connects this verse to those that precede it. For him, Job is saying, “This is what I have been telling you. Listen to me. How can I keep quiet in the face of all that has happened to me? You know that there are set circumstances and times in which each person must live. Like a hired laborer who has a set period of work at a particular wage, so I have a set burden given to me.”
7:2 As slaves yearn for shade and as hired servants hope for their wage,
7:3 I have indeed inherited months of disaster and they have appointed for me nights of need.
We have again translated this in the plural. These verses are connected. As a result, they must be understood and interpreted together. Rashi offers an expanded meaning: “Like a slave who labors and gasps all day, yearning for the shadow of evening, and like a hired servant who yearns for the setting of the sun, for the servant expects to be paid a wage at evening having worked all day.”
The shade of evening provides both the slave and the worker with respite from the sun, but it also indicates that it is the end of the workday, as Ibn Ezra reminds us.
7:4 When I lie down, I ask, “When am I going to get up?” But the night stretches on and I am fed up tossing and turning until dawn.
This is an easy image to which most people can relate. Perhaps our burden has never been as great as Job’s. Nevertheless, things that trouble us have prevented us from sleeping and we simply wait for the sun to rise so that we can get out of bed. At night, alone, we are particularly vulnerable to our pain when there is little to mitigate it.
7:5 My body is clothed with worms and clods of dirt; my skin is puckered and disgusting.
Job looks as bad as he feels. What has happened to him has affected his body and his mind. In order to emphasize both his state of mind and his physical condition, the Targum translates the second clause as “my skin trembles and wastes away.”
Rashi wants his readers to fully understand Job’s condition so he describes it as a specific skin disease that affects those who live in caves and is caused by the soil found in them. (However, there is no indication by the author of Job or by Job’s own words that he ever lived in a cave.)
7:6 My days pass faster than a weaver’s shuttle and they end without hope.
This reminds the reader somewhat of the contemporary expression of folk wisdom, “The years are short and the days are long.” Job knows that his life is short. But he is also despondent, because he sees no potential for joy, happiness or optimism in them.
Rashi attempts to take the verse a little more positively. He understands the first phrase to mean “my fortunate days pass faster.” He points out that the speed of the weaving process has made the weaver and his tools metaphors for speed as in the phrase kepaditi c’oreg chayai, “I have rolled up my life like a weaver” (Isaiah 38:12). Rashi then takes the last clause to mean that Job no longer has any hope for good fortune.
7:7 Remember that my life is but a breath. My eye will never again see good.
At first read, the two parts of this verse appear to be two unrelated statements. The only thing that ties them together is that they are both related to Job’s short and painful life on earth. But perhaps since Job recognizes that his sojourn on earth is short and limited and hasn’t experienced good, at least after his tragedies, there is nothing more to which he can look forward.
While there doesn’t seem to be any reason to indicate this as a reference to life after death, especially since that is a rabbinic concept that was introduced after the Bible was written, Rashi nevertheless takes the last clause as proof that Job has denied the doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead.
7:8 That eye that now sees me will never again see me. Your eyes are upon me and I am gone.
Although the first clause in this verse seems clear, the second phrase is not quite as clear. To whom do “your eyes” refer? If it is Job’s friends to which it refers, then the last clause is parallel to the first clause: when Job dies, he will disappear from the sight and the concerns of other people. If it is God, then one might assume that even after death, Job will be seen by God.
7:9 A cloud vanishes and is gone just as one who goes into the grave will never come up.
This verse seems to deny the possibility of life after death. However, had such a possibility existed in the mind of the author of the book of Job, the entire problem of suffering without guilt, the burden of the book, would have been mitigated. Precisely the problem of evil, perpetrated or allowed by a loving God, assumes a this-world orientation. Conversely, one may argue that the world-to-come as the solution for the problem of evil is required to maintain the notion of a loving and caring Deity.
7:10 One will never return to one’s house. One’s place will not know oneself again.
Just like the previous verse, this one proclaims that death is the end of life. There is no life beyond this life. We die and all of our familiar places are gone to us and we are gone to them. For religions that depend on a system that affirms the principles that if one is good, one will receive good and if that good is not manifest in this life it will come in the next life, the view of Job presented here is both a challenge and a threat. It challenges the view of a beneficent Deity and it threatens the entire structure of religious belief and action.
7:11 Therefore, I will not be silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Having nothing to lose, Job chooses to speak out at this time. Life has brought him pain. Only death can bring an end to his pain. To emphasize the place from which he is speaking, he emphasizes the depth of his pain by offering the last two clauses of this verse, which are parallel statements.
7:12 Am I the sea or a sea monster that you set a watch over me?
Job presents himself as a solitary and mortal individual rather than some kind of natural or supernatural threat. Hence, he asks why is he being treated as if he were either of the two.
7:13 Were I to say that my bed should comfort me and my couch should ease my lament?
It is clear that the understanding of this verse is dependent on the verse that follows. Both clauses in this verse parallel one another. Rashi helps us to understand the verse by suggesting that it means, “My bed at night helps me to endure my pain so that I am able to control my complaint.” In other words, if he is asleep, he is not aware of his pain and therefore does not express it.
7:14 But you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions.
This verse seems to undermine Rashi’s understanding of the previous verse. Job is telling his readers that even in the midst of sleep—which should separate him from the awareness of his pain—he suffers because of what he dreams. Job’s interpretation of those dreams makes him feel even worse. Job gets no relief, neither during the day nor at night.
7:15 I would rather be strangled and dead than have this body of mine.
This is an intentionally gruesome image. It is in his body that Job feels pain and suffers. He imagines that were he dead, he would not be experiencing pain any longer.
7:16 I loathe living. I would not live forever. Let me alone. My