I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.
Parallel translations
- WEB I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.
- KJV I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.
- NKJV I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone, For my days are but a breath.
- NASB “I waste away; I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are only a breath.
- NLT I hate my life and don’t want to go on living. Oh, leave me alone for my few remaining days.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job declares he loathes his life and does not wish to live forever, asking God to leave him alone since his days are mere breath. He pleads for respite.
Overview
Worn down, Job asks God to withdraw the relentless pressure of his trial, again calling life a fleeting breath. His weariness is profound, yet he still addresses God. The verse honestly portrays how suffering can make life feel unbearable, while the book moves toward restoring Job's hope through encounter with God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- 1 Kgs 19:4while he himself traveled on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
- Job 10:1“I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
- Job 9:21Though I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life.
- Job 14:6look away from him and let him rest, so he can enjoy his day as a hired hand.
- Ps 62:9Lowborn men are but a vapor, the exalted but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.
- Job 6:9that God would be willing to crush me, to unleash His hand and cut me off!
- Jonah 4:8As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
- Job 10:20Are my days not few? Withdraw from me, that I may have a little comfort,
- Ps 39:13Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may again be cheered before I depart and am no more.”
- Ps 78:33So He ended their days in futility, and their years in sudden terror.
- Job 3:20–22Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,
- Jonah 4:3And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
- Ps 39:10Remove Your scourge from me; I am perishing by the force of Your hand.
- Eccl 6:11–12For the more words, the more futility—and how does that profit anyone?
- Ps 144:4Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
- Gen 27:46Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a Hittite wife from among them, what good is my life?”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 7:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.