a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
swifter
קַ֭לּוּKa.lu
H7043
to be (causatively · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
weaver’s shuttle
אָ֑רֶג'A.reg
H708
a weaving · noun, common masculine singular absolute
spent
וַ֝יִּכְל֗וּvai.yikh.Lu
H3615
to end · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
without
בְּאֶ֣פֶסbe.'E.fes
H657
cessation · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
hope
תִּקְוָֽהtik.Vah
H8615
literally a cord (as an attachment) · noun, common feminine 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 9:25 Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.
Job 17:15 And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
Job 17:11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
Job 16:22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
Psalms 103:15-16 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
Psalms 144:4 Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.
Proverbs 14:32 The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death.
Isaiah 38:12-13 Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sick…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 7:1-6
Job is here excusing what he could not justify, even his inordinate desire of death. Why should he not wish for the termination of life, which would be the termination of his miseries? To enforce this reason he argues,
I. From the general condition of man upon earth (Job 7:1): "He is of few days, and full of trouble. Every man must die shortly, and every man has some reason (more or less) to desire to die shortly; and therefore why should you impute it to me as so heinous a crime that I wish to die shortly?" Or thus: "Pray mistake not my desires of death, as if I thought the time appointed of God could be anticipated: no, I know very well that that is fixed; only in such language as this I t…
(Isa 38:12). Every day like the weaver's shuttle leaves a thread behind; and each shall wear, as he weaves. But Job's thought is that his days must swiftly be cut off as a web;
without hope--namely, of a recovery and renewal of life (Job 14:19; Ch1 29:15).
John Gill on Job 7:6
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle,.... Which moves very swiftly, being thrown quick and fast to and fro; some versions render it "a racer" (b) one that runs a race on foot, or rides on horseback, agreeably to Job 9:25; where, and in Job 7:7; to it, other similes are used, to set forth the swiftness and fleetness of man's days; as they also are elsewhere represented, as swift as a tale told, a word expressed, or a thought conceived, Psalm 90:9; and so here, by the Septuagint, are said to be "swifter than speech", though wrongly translated: this is to be understood, not of his days of affliction, distress, and sorrow; for these in his apprehension moved but slowly, and he could have…
4 If I lie down, I think:
When shall I arise and the evening break away?
And I become weary with tossing to and fro unto the morning dawn.
5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of earth;
My skin heals up to fester again.
6 My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle,
And vanish without hope.
Most modern commentators take מדּד as Piel from מדד: the night is extended (Renan: la nuit se prolonge), which is possible; comp. Ges. 52, 2. But the metre suggests another rendering: מדּד constr. of מדּד from נדד, to flee away: and when fleeing away of the evening. The night is described by its commencement, the late evening, to make the long interval of the sleeplessness and restlessness of the in…
The Church Fathers
"And my life flies faster than speech. I act even less than I speak.
My days are past more swiftly than a web is cut off by the weaver. By a very suitable image the time of the flesh is compared to a web. For as the web advances by threads, so this mortal life by the several days; but in proportion as it grows to its bigness, it is advancing to its cutting off. For as we have also said above, whilst the time in our hands passes, the time before us is shortened. And of the whole space of our lives those portions are rendered fewer that are to come, in proportion as those are many in number that have gone by. For a web, being fastened above and below, is bound to two pieces of wood that it may be woven; but in proportion as below the part woven is rolled up, so above the part that remains to be woven is being unwound, and by the same act, by which it augments itself in growth, that is rendered less which remains. Just so with the periods of our life, we as it were roll up below those that are past, and unwind at top those that are to come, in that in the same proportion that the past become more, the future have begun to diminish. But because not even does a web suffice for the setting forth of our span of time, for the rapid course of our life surpasses the speed and quickness even of that too, it is well said in this place, My days are past away more swiftly than a web is cut off by the weaver. For to the web there is a delay of growth, but to the present life there is no delay of coming to an end. For in the one when the hand of the workman is stopped, the end of the arrival is deferred, but in this latter, because we consume without end time ending every instant, even while resting we are brought to the end of our way, and along the course of our passage, we go on even in sleeping. Therefore the Elect, seeing that the moments of the present life run past at speed, never in this journey of most rapid motion fix the purpose of their hearts. And hence it is well added upon that, And are spent without any hope. The minds of lost sinners are bound fast with such love for the days of their present life, that they long to live for ever here in the same way. So that, if it were possible, they desire never to have the course of their life brought to an end. For they are too indifferent to take account of the future, they place all their hope in transitory things, they aim to have nothing but such objects as pass away. And while…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Handicraft — (Acts 18:3; 19:25; Revelation 18:22) A trade was taught to ail the Jewish boys as a necessary part of their education. Even the greatest rabbis maintained themselves by trades (Delitzsch). Says Rabbi…
Weaving, weavers — Weaving was an art practised in very early times (Ex. 35:35). The Egyptians were specially skilled in it (Isa. 19:9; Ezek. 27:7), and some have regarded them as its inventors. In the wilderness, the…
Despair · Saints sometimes tempted to — Saints sometimes tempted to
Life · BREVITY AND UNCERTAINTY OF — BREVITY AND UNCERTAINTY OF
Life, Natural · Is compared to: A weaver’s shuttle — Is compared to: A weaver’s shuttle
Shuttle · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Weaving · Weaver’ s shuttle — Weaver’ s shuttle
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).
Job cried out to God, complaining that life was too brief (7:6-10). This complaint contrasts ironically with his earlier desire that God end it all (6:9).
Rashi on Job 7:6
My days are swifter The days of my prosperity hastened to go away.
than a weaver’s shuttle Than weaving that is done swiftly. So said Hezekiah (Isa. 38:12), “I severed, like a weaver, my life.”
without hope I no longer hope for good.
