I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.
Parallel translations
- WEB I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.
- BSB I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.
- 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 19:4But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
- Job 10:1My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
- Job 9:21Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life.
- Job 14:6Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.
- Ps 62:9Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.
- Job 6:9Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!
- Jonah 4:8And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
- Job 10:20Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,
- Ps 39:13O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.
- Ps 78:33Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.
- Job 3:20–22Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;
- Jonah 4:3Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
- Ps 39:10Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.
- Eccl 6:11–12Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?
- Ps 144:4Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.
- Gen 27:46And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
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.