Job 10:20 - Exposition

Are not my days few? Cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little . Job here returns from vague longings and idle aspirations to actual realities—the facts of the case—and asks, "Is not the time that I now have to live short? Must not my disease make an end of me in a very brief space? If so, then may I not make a request? My petition is that God will 'cease' from me, grant me a respite, 'let me alone' for a short time, remove his heavy hand, and allow me to 'take comfort a little,' recover my strength, and obtain a breathing-space, before my actual end, before the time comes for my descent to Sheol," which is then (verses 21, 22) described. The parallel with Psalms 39:13 is striking.