Logos Bible Study

Job 7:17–18

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Insignificance of Humans

7:17“What is mankind59 that you make so much of them,60

and that you pay attention61 to them?

7:18And that you visit62 them every morning,

and try63 them every moment?64

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Footnotes

  1. 59 The verse is a rhetorical question; it is intended to mean that man is too little for God to be making so much over him in all this.
  2. 60 The Piel verb is a factitive meaning “to magnify.” The English word “magnify” might not be the best translation here, for God, according to Job, is focusing inordinately on him. It means to magnify in thought, appreciate, think highly of. God, Job argues, is making too much of mankind by devoting so much bad attention on them.
  3. 61 The expression “set your heart on” means “concentrate your mind on” or “pay attention to.”
  4. 62 The verb פָּקַד (paqad) is a very common one in the Bible; while it is frequently translated “visit,” the “visit” is never comparable to a social call. When God “visits” people it always means a divine intervention for blessing or cursing—but the visit always changes the destiny of the one visited. Here Job is amazed that God Almighty would be so involved in the life of mere human beings.
  5. 63 Now the verb “to test” is introduced and gives further explanation to the purpose of the “visit” in the parallel line (see the same parallelism in Ps 17:3). The verb בָּחַן (bakhan) has to do with passing things through the fire or the crucible to purify the metal (see Job 23:10; Zech 13:3); metaphorically it means “to examine carefully” and “to purify by testing.”
  6. 64 The amazing thing is the regularity of the testing. Job is at first amazed that God would visit him; but even more is he amazed that God is testing him every moment. The employment of a chiasm with the two temporal adverbial phrases as the central elements emphasizes the regularity.

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

What is man, that you make so much of him,

and that you set your heart on him,

visit him every morning

and test him every moment?

NIVNew International Version (2011)

“What is mankind that you make so much of them,

that you give them so much attention,

that you examine them every morning

and test them every moment?

CSBChristian Standard Bible

What is a mere human, that you think so highly of him

and pay so much attention to him?

You inspect him every morning,

and put him to the test every moment.

NLTNew Living Translation

“What are people, that you should make so much of us,

that you should think of us so often?

For you examine us every morning

and test us every moment.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

“What is a human being that you make him great

and that you fix your mind on him,

so that you visit him every morning,

you test him every moment?

KJV 1900King James Version

What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him?

And that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?

And that thou shouldest visit him every morning,

And try him every moment?