Catholic Commentary on Job 7

"What is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so much attention, that you examine them every morning and test them every moment?" (Job 7:17-18)

Job Speaks to God

Job turns from the friends to God and complains directly. His life is like that of a hired labourer. Months of futility are assigned to him. He lies in bed thinking: when will it be morning? His skin breaks open and festers. He cries out: remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never see good again. Then the bitter inversion of Psalm 8: what is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so much attention, that you examine them every morning and test them every moment? Why have you made me your target? Am I a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my offenses?

Job inverts the great Psalm 8 question - instead of what is mankind that you are mindful of them, he asks why God's attention feels like persecution. The Catechism identifies this as legitimate anguished prayer: the faith that addresses God with complete honesty about its experience, even when that experience contradicts comforting theology (CCC 2577).

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, Job turned from complaining to his friends and complained directly to God instead. This is the right direction. The anguish addressed to God in prayer, however raw, is still addressed to God - it is still relationship. The prayer that argues with God is more faithful than the complaint that only talks about God to bystanders.

Prayer

Lord God, receive our most desperate questions. When your attention feels like examination and your scrutiny like persecution, we still address you directly. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

7
Job Continues: Life Seems Futile
1 “Is not man consigned to labor on earth?
Are not his days like those of a hired hand?
2 Like a slave he longs for shade;
like a hireling he waits for his wages.
3 So I am allotted months of futility,
and nights of misery are appointed me.
4 When I lie down I think:
‘When will I get up?’
But the night drags on,
and I toss and turn until dawn.
5 My flesh is clothed with worms
and encrusted with dirt;
my skin is cracked and festering.
6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
 
7 Remember that my life is but a breath.
My eyes will never again see happiness.
8 The eye that beholds me will no longer see me.
You will look for me, but I will be no more.
9 As a cloud vanishes and is gone,
so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up.
10 He never returns to his house;
his place remembers him no more.
 
11 Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12 Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep,
that You must keep me under guard?
13 When I think my bed will comfort me
and my couch will ease my complaint,
14 then You frighten me with dreams
and terrify me with visions,
15 so that I would prefer strangling and death
over my life in this body.
16 I loathe my life! I would not live forever.
Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.
 
17 What is man that You should exalt him,
that You should set Your heart upon him,
18 that You attend to him every morning,
and test him every moment?
19 Will You never look away from me,
or leave me alone to swallow my spittle?
20 If I have sinned, what have I done to You,
O watcher of mankind?
Why have You made me Your target,
so that I am a burden to You * 7:20 LXX; Hebrew to myself?
21 Why do You not pardon my transgression
and take away my iniquity?
For soon I will lie down in the dust;
You will seek me, but I will be no more.”

*7:20 7:20 LXX; Hebrew to myself

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