“As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work:”
Job compares his own experience to that of a servant longing for the evening's shade and a laborer waiting for his wages, suggesting that his suffering is characterized by painful waiting for relief that never comes. The images of shade and wages represent the promised rewards of labor that sustain the worker through difficulty. Job's comparison implies that he is like a laborer who works but receives no wages.
Church Fathers on Job 7:2
As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the end of his work, so am I made to possess months of vanity, and I have numbered me wearisome nights. Since for ‘a servant to desire the shadow,’ is after the heat of trial and the sweat of labour to seek the cool of eternal repose. Which shadow that servant desired, who said, My soul thirsteth for God, the living God; when shall I come and appear before God? And again, Woe is me that I sojourn in…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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