“I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.”
Job expresses loathing of his life and declares that he would not live forever, preferring to be left alone since his days are empty. The assertion that he will not live forever moves from wishful thinking to confident assertion: his days are few, and he will soon be dead. The plea to be left alone suggests that even the consciousness of suffering itself becomes unbearable.
Church Fathers on Job 7:16
I have given over hope, I will not live any longer. There be some of the righteous, who so entertain the desire of heavenly things, that, notwithstanding this, they are not broken off from the hope of things earthly. The inheritance bestowed on them by God they keep for the supply of necessities, the honours awarded them on a temporal footing they retain; they do not covet the things of others, they make a lawful use of their own. Yet these are strangers to those same things…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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