New International Version
Job 7:2
2Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired laborer waiting to be paid,
Job 7:2 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work:
- English Standard Version (ESV)Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,
- New King James Version (NKJV)Like a servant who earnestly desires the shade, And like a hired man who eagerly looks for his wages,
- New Living Translation (NLT)like a worker who longs for the shade, like a servant waiting to be paid.
Context of Job 7:2
1“Do not mortals have hard service on earth? Are not their days like those of hired laborers? Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired laborer waiting to be paid, 3so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me. 4When I lie down I think, ‘How long before I get up?’ The night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.
Read all of Job 7Job 7:2 word by word
כְּעֶ֥בֶד יִשְׁאַף־צֵ֑ל וּ֝כְשָׂכִ֗יר יְקַוֶּ֥ה פָעֳלֽוֹ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 7:2
- Psalms 119:131I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands.
- Psalms 143:6I spread out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land.
- Jeremiah 6:4“Prepare for battle against her! Arise, let us attack at noon! But, alas, the daylight is fading, and the shadows of evening grow long.
- Leviticus 19:13“ ‘Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. “ ‘Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.
- Deuteronomy 24:15Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
- Malachi 3:5“So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.
- James 5:4Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.
Commentaries on Job 7:2
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 2Earnestly desireth the shadow - As a man who labors hard in the heat of the day earnestly desires to get under a shade, or wishes for the long evening shadows, that he may rest from his labor, get his day's wages, retire to his food, and then go to rest. Night is probably what is meant by the shadow; as in Virgil, Aen. iv., ver. 7: Humentemque Aurora polo dimoverat Umbram. "The morning had removed the humid shadow, i.e., night, from the world." Where…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 2As a servant earnestly desireth - Margin, gapeth after. The word here שׁאף shâ'aph means to breathe hard, to pant, to blow, and then to desire earnestly. The shadow - This may refer either to a shade in the intense heat of the day, or to the night. Nothing is more grateful in oriental countries, when the sun pours down intensely on burning sands, than the shadow of a tree, or the shade of a projecting rock. The editor of the Pictorial Bible on this verse…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 2Employers had the obligation to pay workers at the end of each day (Leviticus 19:13; Deuteronomy 24:15). But this did not always happen (Jeremiah 22:13; Malachi 3:5; James 5:4).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 22. earnestly desireth--Hebrew, "pants for the [evening] shadow." Easterners measure time by the length of their shadow. If the servant longs for the evening when his wages are paid, why may not Job long for the close of his hard service, when he shall enter on his "reward?" This proves that Job did not, as many maintain, regard the grave as a mere sleep. 3.--Months of comfortless misfortune. I am made to possess--literally, "to be heir to." Irony. "To be…Read the comment
Topics related to Job 7:2
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
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