God’s Word Translation
Job 7:15
15My throat would rather be choked. My body would prefer death ⌞to these dreams⌟.
Job 7:15 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life.
- New International Version (NIV)so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine.
- English Standard Version (ESV)so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones.
- New King James Version (NKJV)So that my soul chooses strangling And death rather than my body.
Context of Job 7:15
13When I say, ‘My couch may give me comfort. My bed may help me bear my pain,’ 14then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions. My throat would rather be choked. My body would prefer death ⌞to these dreams⌟. 16I hate my life; I do not want to live forever. Leave me alone because my days are so brief. 17“What is a mortal that you should make so much of him, that you should be concerned about him?
Read all of Job 7Job 7:15 word by word
וַתִּבְחַ֣ר מַחֲנָ֣ק נַפְשִׁ֑י מָ֝֗וֶת מֵֽעַצְמוֹתָֽי׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 7:15
- 2 Samuel 17:23When Ahithophel saw that his advice hadn’t been followed, he saddled his donkey, left, and went home to his own city. He gave instructions to his family. Then he hanged himself, died, and was buried in his father’s tomb.
- Matthew 27:5So he threw the money into the temple, went away, and hanged himself.
Commentaries on Job 7:15
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 15Chooseth strangling - It is very likely that he felt, in those interrupted and dismal slumbers, an oppression and difficulty of breathing something like the incubus or nightmare; and, distressing as this was, he would prefer death by this means to any longer life in such miseries.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 15So that my soul - So that I; the soul being put for himself. Chooseth strangling - Dr. Good renders it “suffocation,” and supposes that Job alludes to the oppression of breathing, produced by what is commonly called the night-mare, and that he means that he would prefer the sense of suffocation excited at such a time to the terrible images before his mind. Herder renders it, death. Jerome, suspendium. The Septuagint, “Thou separatest ( ̓́ apallaceis ) my…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 7-16Verses 7-16 Plain truths as to the shortness and vanity of man's life, and the certainty of death, do us good, when we think and speak of them with application to ourselves. Dying is done but once, and therefore it had need be well done. An error here is past retrieve. Other clouds arise, but the same cloud never returns: so a new generation of men is raised up, but the former generation vanishes away. Glorified saints shall return no more to the cares…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 6-21Job cried out to God, saying life was too short (7:6–10). This complaint contrasts with his earlier wish for God to end his life (6:9).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1515. Umbreit translates, "So that I could wish to strangle myself--dead by my own hands." He softens this idea of Job's harboring the thought of suicide, by representing it as entertained only in agonizing dreams, and immediately repudiated with horror in Job 7:16, "Yet that (self-strangling) I loathe." This is forcible and graphic. Perhaps the meaning is simply, "My soul chooses (even) strangling (or any violent death) rather than my life," literally, "my…Read the comment
Topics related to Job 7:15
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 7
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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