Logos Bible Study

Job 7:3

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7:3thus7 I have been made to inherit8

months of futility,9

and nights of sorrow10

have been appointed11 to me.

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Footnotes

  1. 7 “Thus” indicates a summary of vv. 1 and 2: like the soldier, the mercenary, and the slave, Job has labored through life and looks forward to death.
  2. 8 The form is the Hophal perfect of נָחַל (nakhal): “I have been made to inherit,” or more simply, “I have inherited.” The form occurs only here. The must have confused the letters or sounds, a ו (vav) for the ן (nun), for it reads “I have endured.” As a passive the form technically has two accusatives (see §121.c). Job’s point is that his sufferings have been laid on him by another, and so he has inherited them.
  3. 9 The word is שָׁוְא (shav’, “vanity, deception, nothingness, futility”). His whole life—marked here in months to show its brevity—has been futile. E. Dhorme (Job, 98) suggests the meaning “disillusionment,” explaining that it marks the deceptive nature of mortal life. The word describes life as hollow, insubstantial.
  4. 10 “Sorrow” is עָמָל (’amal), used in 3:10. It denotes anxious toil, labor, troublesome effort. It may be that the verse expresses the idea that the nights are when the pains of his disease are felt the most. The months are completely wasted; the nights are agonizing.
  5. 11 The verb is literally “they have appointed”; the form with no expressed subject is to be interpreted as a passive ( §144.g). It is therefore not necessary to repoint the verb to make it passive. The word means “to number; to count,” and so “to determine; to allocate.”

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

so I am allotted months of emptiness,

and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

so I have been allotted months of futility,

and nights of misery have been assigned to me.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

So I have been made to inherit months of futility,

and troubled nights have been assigned to me.

NLTNew Living Translation

I, too, have been assigned months of futility,

long and weary nights of misery.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

So I had to inherit months of worthlessness,

and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

KJV 1900King James Version

So am I made to possess months of vanity,

And wearisome nights are appointed to me.