“Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?
Parallel translations
- KJV Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?
- BSB “Is not man consigned to labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired hand?
- 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 14:5–6Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass;
- Ps 39:4“Yahweh, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.
- Job 5:7but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
- Job 14:13–14“Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would keep me secret, until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
- Lev 25:50He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; he shall be with him according to the time of a hired servant.
- Isa 40:2“Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of Yahweh’s hand double for all her sins.”
- Deut 15:18It shall not seem hard to you, when you let him go free from you; for he has been double value of a hired hand as he served you six years. Yahweh your God will bless you in all that you do.
- Eccl 8:8There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it.
- Matt 20:1–15“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who was the master of a household, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
- John 11:9–10Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? If a man walks in the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
- Isa 38:5“Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘Yahweh says, the God of David your father, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.
- Isa 21:16For the Lord said to me, “Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, all the glory of Kedar will fail,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 7:1 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.