Job 7:17

MORE OF JOB'S ANQUISHED CRY TO GOD

"What is man that thou shouldest magnify him,

That thou shouldest set thy mind upon him?

And that thou shouldest visit him every morning,

And try him every moment.

How long wilt thou not look away from me,

Nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?

If 50have sinned, what do I unto thee,

O thou watcher of men?

Why hast thou set me as a mark for thee,

So that I am a burden to myself?.

And why dost thou not pardon my transgression,

And take away mine iniquity?

For now shall I lie down in the dust;

And thou shalt seek me diligently, but I shall not be."

"Once again the angry questions pour out. Why, why, why?"[8]

"What is man ... that thou shouldest set thy mind against him" (Job 7:17). "Job here demands to know why God concerns himself to interfere with so insignificant a being as man."[9]

"The language of Job 7:17 is too much like Psalms 8 to be a coincidence; and some think that Job was twisting the Psalm into a parody";[10] but we reject this as absolutely impossible of any proof. It is far more likely that the author of the Psalm was changing the expression from what he read in Job. Besides that, the resemblance of the two passages might very well be pure coincidence.

"Till I swallow down my spittle" (Job 7:19). "This is a figurative expression with the meaning of `a mere moment.'"[11] A similar rude proverb from West Texas is, "time to spit on his hands."