a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
few
מְעַ֣טme.'At
H4592
a little or few (often adverbial or compar.) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
cease
וַחֲדָ֑לve.che.Dal
H2308
properly · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
alone
וְשִׁ֥יתya.shit
H7896
to place (in a very wide application) · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
comfort
וְאַבְלִ֥יגָהve.'av.Li.gah
H1082
to break off or loose (in a favorable or unfavorable se… · conjunction + verb, hiphil infinitive construct, 1st person common singular
little
מְּעָֽטme.'At
H4592
a little or few (often adverbial or compar.) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 14:1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
Psalms 39:13 O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.
Job 7:6-7 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
Job 7:16-21 I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.
Job 8:9 (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow:)
Job 9:25-26 Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.
Job 13:21 Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid.
Psalms 39:5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether v…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 10:14–end
Here we have,
I. Job's passionate complaints. On this harsh and unpleasant string he harps much, in which, though he cannot be justified, he may be excused. He complained not for nothing, as the murmuring Israelites, but had cause to complain. If we think it looks ill in him, let it be a warning to us to keep our temper better.
1. He complains of the strictness of God's judgment and the rigour of his proceedings against him, and is ready to call it summum jus - justice bordering on severity. (1.) That he took all advantages against him: "If I sin, then thou markest me, Job 10:14.(1.) If I do but take one false step, misplace a word, or cast a look awry, I shall be sure to hear of it. Conscie…
But, since I was destined from my birth to these ills, at least give me a little breathing time during the few days left me (Job 9:34; Job 13:21; Psa 39:13).
John Gill on Job 10:20
Are not my days few?.... They are so, the days of every man are but few; see Job 14:1; the remainder of Job's days were but few; considering the course of nature, and especially the sore afflictions he had on him, it could not be thought his days on earth were many; in all likelihood, according to human probability, he had but a few days to live: or "are not my days a small little thing" (g)? it is as an hand's breadth, as nothing before God, Psalm 39:5,
cease then; that is, from afflicting him; since he had so short a time to live, he requests there might be some intermission of his trouble; that he might have some intervals of comfort and refreshment, that not all his days, which were so…
18 And wherefore hast Thou brought me forth out of the womb?
I should have expired, that no eye had seen me,
19 I should have been as though I had never been,
Carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are not my days few? then cease
And turn from me, that I may become a little cheerful,
21 Before I go to return no more
Into the land of darkness and of the shadow of death,
22 The land of deep darkness like to midnight,
Of the shadow of death and of confusion,
And which is bright like midnight.
The question Wherefore? Job 10:18, is followed by futt. as modi conditionales (Ges. 127, 5) of that which would and should have happened, if God had not permitted him to be born alive: I should have expire…
The Church Fathers
"Is not my life short? If I am not dead, it is not that my life is long, because it is assuredly little. "Let me rest for a few moments; After the kindness you showed me by forming clay, condemning me to die when I corrupted myself, consoling myself after that very condemnation, and then feeling myself by afflictions. Suffer that I rest in you.
Job wants to find relief before he has to go from where he cannot return. Therefore, he does not pray for himself, but to teach the friends who think that those who suffer hardship are evil but those who are free from hardship are righteous. He desired that they should gain certainty regarding the divine resolutions about him. One should not assume that Job denies the resurrection of the dead. Rather, Job says, "From where I will not return to lead a mortal life." Job knows that he will rise as immortal.
Will not the small number of my days be finished in a short time? He shews himself to live with good heed and circumspection, who, in considering the shortness of the present life does not look to the furtherance but to the ending of it, so as to gather from the end, that all is nought that delights while it is passing. For hence it is said by Solomon, But if a man live many years and rejoice in them all, yet let him remember the time of darkness, and the days that shall be many; and when they come, the past shall be convinced of vanity. Hence again it is written, Whatsoever thou takest in hand, remember thine end, and thou shalt never do amiss. Therefore when sin tempts the mind, it is requisite that the soul should regard the shortness of its gratification, lest iniquity hurry it on to a living death, when it is plain that a mortal life is quickly speeding to an end. But often the eye of our contemplation is bewildered, while our pain is heightened by thickening scourges. It is good to bewail the exile of the present life, yet for mere anguish alone the mind cannot take account of the ills of its blind state. Hence he directly adds, And let me go, that I may bewail my sorrow a little. For as moderate distress gives vent to tears, so excessive sorrow checks them, since that grief itself is as it were made void of grief, which by swallowing up the mind of the person afflicted, takes away the sense of grief. Therefore the holy man shrinks from being stricken more than he is equal to bear, saying, And let me go, that I may bewail my sorrow a little. As if it were in plain words, 'Qualify the strokes of Thy scourging, that, my pains being made moderate, in weeping I may have power to estimate the miseries I endure.' Which same nevertheless may likewise be understood in another sense. For oftentimes the sinner is so bound by the chains of his wickedness, that he bears indeed the burthen of his sins, and knows not that he is bearing it. Often if he does know with what an amount of guilt he is burthened, he strives to break loose and cannot, so as to hunt it down in himself with free spirit and full conversion. Thus he is unable to 'bewail his sorrow,' for at once he sees the guilt of his sinful state, and by reason of the weight of earthly business, is not at liberty to bewail it. He is unable to 'bewail his sorrow,' who strives indeed to resist evil habits, yet…
Dictionary and topics
Colors · BLACK: A SYMBOL OF AFFLICTION AND — BLACK: A SYMBOL OF AFFLICTION AND
Life · BREVITY AND UNCERTAINTY OF — BREVITY AND UNCERTAINTY OF
Philosophy · provi — provi
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Earlier, Job had painted a fairly pleasant picture of Sheol (3:13-19); now he describes it as a land of darkness and utter gloom (see also 7:9-10; 14:7-22).
Rashi on Job 10:20
withdraw from me Withdraw Yourself from me and from upon me, like (Isa. 65:5), “Keep to yourself” Remain by yourself and distance yourself from me.
