Job 7:11

THE BITTERNESS OF JOB'S COMPLAINT

"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

Am I a sea, or a sea-monster,

That thou settest a watch over me?

When I say, My bed shall comfort me,

My couch shall ease my complaint;

Then thou scarest me with dreams,

And terrifiest me through visions:

So that my soul chooseth strangling, And death rather than these my bones.

I loathe my life; I would not live alway:

Let me alone, for my days are vanity."

The recurrence of the word `thou' (Job 7:12,14) indicates that we have a prayer here in which Job pours out the bitterness of his complaint to God Himself. The terrible dreams and nightmares that came to Job are thought by some to have been characteristic of the disease of Elephantiasis. This may nor may not have been the case.

One of the most significant things in Job is the frequency and persistence in which Job turns again and again to God. Even though Job recognizes God as his antagonist, "He still addresses him as Friend, the Unseen, the Author of his sorrows; but, through all of these agonized protests, there runs the perception that God cannot be entirely against him,"[6] and that God alone is the answer to all our misfortunes.

"So that my soul chooseth strangling and death" (Job 7:15). Nevertheless, "Job does not contemplate suicide. The case of Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:23) is the only bona fide case of suicide in the Old Testament. The instances of two warriors resorting to suicide (Judges 9:54; 1 Samuel 31:4) in order to escape dishonor are not quite the same as deliberate and premeditated suicide."[7]