Job 7:1

Work Exhaustion Death and loss

Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?

² As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work:

³ So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.

Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: “Is not man consigned to labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired hand?
KJV: Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?
WEB: “Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?
ASV: Is there not a warfare to man upon earth? And are not his days like the days of a hireling?
DARBY: Hath not man a life of labour upon earth? and are not his days like the days of a hireling?
BLB: [“] Is there not hard service for man on earth? Are his days like the days of a hireling?

ÅB: Er ikke et menneskes liv på jorden en krigstjeneste, og hans dager som en dagarbeiders dager?
OTB: «Er ikke et menneske tvunget til å arbeide på jorden,
Og er ikke hans dager som dagene til en leiekar?
B1930: Er ikke et menneskes liv på jorden en krigstjeneste, og hans dager som en dagarbeiders dager?

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

Job 14:5–6
Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;
Read in context
Psalms 39:4
LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.
Read in context
Job 5:7
Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
Read in context
Job 14:13–14
O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Read in context
Leviticus 25:50
And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.
Read in context
Deuteronomy 15:18
It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee; for he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee, in serving thee six years: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest.
Read in context
Ecclesiastes 8:8
There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.
Read in context
Matthew 20:1–15
For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.
Read in context