“Is not man consigned to labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired hand?
Parallel translations
- WEB “Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?
- KJV Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?
- NKJV “Is there not a time of hard service for man on earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hired man?
- NASB “Is a person not forced to labor on earth, And are his days not like the days of a hired worker?
- NLT “Is not all human life a struggle? Our lives are like that of a hired hand,
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 asks whether man's life on earth is not hard service, his days like those of a hired laborer. He frames human existence as toilsome and burdensome.
Overview
Opening a fresh lament, Job compares human life to forced military service or the wearying days of a hired hand, full of hardship and longing for the day's end. He voices the universal experience of toil under the fall, where life is labor and rest seems far off. This honest cry anticipates the gospel rest offered by Christ, who invites the weary and heavy-laden to come to him and find rest for their souls.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Job 14:5–6Since his days are determined and the number of his months is with You, and since You have set limits that he cannot exceed,
- Ps 39:4“Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is.
- Job 5:7Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
- Job 14:13–14If only You would hide me in Sheol and conceal me until Your anger has passed! If only You would appoint a time for me and then remember me!
- Lev 25:50He and his purchaser will then count the time from the year he sold himself up to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale will be determined by the number of years, based on the daily wages of a hired hand.
- Isa 40:2“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.”
- Deut 15:18Do not regard it as a hardship to set your servant free, because his six years of service were worth twice the wages of a hired hand. And the LORD your God will bless you in all you do.
- Eccl 8:8As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.
- Matt 20:1–15“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.
- John 11:9–10Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? If anyone walks in the daytime, he will not stumble, because he sees by the light of this world.
- Isa 38:5“Go and tell Hezekiah that this is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.
- Isa 21:16For this is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a hired worker would count it, all the glory of Kedar will be gone.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 7:1 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.