Job 7:16
I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.
I loathe it,.... Or "them" {k}, either his life, which was a weariness to him, or his bones, which were so painful and nauseous; or rather, "I am become loathsome", to himself, to his servants, and to his friends, and even his breath was strange to his wife; or "being ulcerated, I pine and waste away" {l}, and must in course be quickly gone:
I would not live always; no man can or will; there is no man that lives but what shall see death, Psalms 89:48; Job knew this, nor did he expect or desire it; and this was not his meaning, but that he desired that he might not live long, or to the full term of man's life, yea, that he might die quickly; and indeed to a good man to die is gain; and to depart out of the world, and be with Christ, is far better than to continue in it. And had Job expressed himself without passion, and with submission to the divine will, what he says would not have been amiss:
let me alone; or "cease from me" {m}; from afflicting him any more, having as great a weight upon him as he could bear, or greater than he could well stand up under; or from supporting him in life, he wishes that either God would withdraw his afflicting hand from him, or his preserving hand; either abate the affliction, or dismiss him from the world:
for my days are vanity; a "breath" {n} or puff of wind; a "vapour", as Mr. Broughton renders it, that soon vanishes away; days empty of all that is good, delightful, and pleasant, and full of evil, trouble, and sorrow, as well as fleeting, transitory, and soon gone, are as nothing, yea, less than nothing, and vanity.
{k} "Aspernor vitam", Piscator; so Jarchi & Ben Gersom.
{l} ytoam "tabui", Cocceius; "ulceratus tabesco", Schultens.
{m} ynmm ldx "cessa a me", Pagninus, Montanus, Bolducius, Schmidt.
{n} lbh "halitus", Michaelis, Schultens.