properly · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
do
אֶפְעַ֨ל'ef.'Al
H6466
to do or make (systematically and habitually) · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
preserver
נֹצֵ֪רno.Tzer
H5341
to guard · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct
men
הָאָ֫דָ֥םha.'A.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
set
שַׂמְתַּ֣נִיsam.Ta.ni
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
mark
לְמִפְגָּ֣עle.mif.Ga'
H4645
an object of attack · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
burden
לְמַשָּֽׂאle.ma.Sa'
H4853
a burden · preposition + 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
Lamentations 3:12 He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
Job 3:24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
Job 7:11-12 Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Psalms 36:6 Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.
Nehemiah 9:6 Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are there…
Job 6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array agains…
Job 9:29-31 If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?
Job 13:26 For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 7:17–end
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, whi…
I have sinned--Yet what sin can I do against ("to," Job 35:6) thee (of such a nature that thou shouldst jealously watch and deprive me of all strength, as if thou didst fear me)? Yet thou art one who hast men ever in view, ever watchest them--O thou Watcher (Job 7:12; Dan 9:14) of men. Job had borne with patience his trials, as sent by God (Job 1:21; Job 2:10); only his reason cannot reconcile the ceaseless continuance of his mental and bodily pains with his ideas of the divine nature.
set me as a mark--Wherefore dost thou make me thy point of attack? that is, ever assail me with new pains? [UMBREIT] (Lam 3:12).
John Gill on Job 7:20
I have sinned,.... Some render it, "if I have sinned" (w); be it so that I have, as my friends say, yet since there is forgiveness with thee, why should I be so afflicted as I am? but there is no need of such a supplement, the words are an affirmation, I have sinned, or I am a sinner; not that he owned that he had been guilty of any notorious sin, or had lived a sinful course of life, on account of which his afflictions came upon him, as his friends suggested; but that he was not without sin, was daily guilty of it, as men, even the best of men, ordinarily are; and being a sinner was not a match for a holy God; he could not contend with him, nor answer him for one sin of a thousand committed…
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.
"If I have sinned, what can I do for you? That means; if I have sinned, I can do nothing for you. Do men bother you with their speeches? You who know his thought, would you have formed the man so that his speeches turn against you; for you a burden? And if the sin of man, be in word, or. in action, can not reach you, why do not you forget it? why do you trust whoever committed it? Is it not necessary to relate to your goodness what is said above: "What is the man for you to exalt him? Because they did not understand this, Job's friends thought he had accused God. If the trials to which you submit me must not contain in me the disorderly movements, if you do not take care thus of me, what other motive have you to chastise the man? His sin can not harm you. Or if you see that he speaks against you, since you know his most secret thoughts, you must not establish what is against you.
I have sinned; what shall I do unto Thee, O Thou Preserver of men? 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; 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, shewn 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. 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. 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? 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…
Dictionary and topics
Confession Of Sin · Exemplified: Job — Exemplified: Job
Man · God: Preserves — God: Preserves
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).
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 7:20–end
20 Have I sinned - what could I do to Thee?!
O Observer of men,
Why dost Thou make me a mark to Thee,
And am I become a burden to Thee?
21 And why dost Thou not forgive my transgression,
And put away my iniquity?
For now I will lay myself in the dust,
And Thou seekest for me, and I am no more.
"I have sinned" is hypothetical (Ges. 155, 4, a): granted that I have sinned. According to Ewald and Olsh., אפעל־לך מה defines it more particularly: I have sinned by what I have done to Thee, in my behaviour towards Thee; but how tame and meaningless such an addition would be! It is an inferential question: what could I do to Thee? i.e., what harm, or also, since the fut. may be regulated by the praet.…
watcher of all humanity: Rather than praising God for his goodness expressed in watchfulness (Deut 32:10; Ps 25:21; Prov 24:12), Job blamed God for hostile surveillance, which actually characterizes Satan’s activity (Job 1:7). • Why is from the language of lament (see study note on 3:11-24). • your target: See 6:4; Lam 3:12.
Rashi on Job 7:20
as a mark for You As an object that a man strikes when he is angry and vents upon it the entire act of his hatred (other editions: his sin).
so that I have become a burden to myself [Etz Chayim ms: Like “and I have become a burden to You.”] This is one of the words in which Scripture euphemized, and they are known as the emendation of the scribes.
