“I waste away; I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are only 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.
- 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.
- 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. Then he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough. Now, O Yahweh, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”
- Job 10:1“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
- Job 9:21I am blameless. I don’t respect myself. I despise my life.
- Job 14:6Look away from him, that he may rest, until he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day.
- Ps 62:9Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath.
- Job 6:9even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!
- Jonah 4:8When the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
- Job 10:20Aren’t my days few? Cease then. Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,
- Ps 39:13Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away, and exist no more.”
- Ps 78:33Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.
- Job 3:20–22“Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul,
- Jonah 4:3Therefore now, Yahweh, take, I beg you, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”
- Ps 39:10Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand.
- Eccl 6:11–12For there are many words that create vanity. What does that profit man?
- Ps 144:4Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.
- Gen 27:46Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good will my life do me?”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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.