12 Am I a sea or a sea-monster,

That thou settest a watch over me?

13 For I said, My bed shall comfort me;

My couch shall help me to bear my complaint.

14 Then thou scaredst me with dreams,

And thou didst wake me up in terror from visions,

15 So that my soul chose suffocation,

Death rather than this skeleton.

16 I loathe it, I would not live alway;

Let me alone, for my days are breath.

Since a watch on the sea can only be designed to effect the necessary precautions at its coming forth from the shores, it is probable that the poet had the Nile in mind when he used ים, and consequently the crocodile by תּנּין. The Nile is also called ים in Isaiah 19:5, and in Homer ὠκεανός, Egyptian oham ( equals ὠκεανός), and is even now called (at least by the Bedouins) bahhr (Arab. bahr). The illustrations of the book, says von Gerlach correctly, are chiefly Egyptian. On the contrary, Hahn thinks the illustration is unsuitable of the Nile, because it is not watched on account of its danger, but its utility; and Schlottman thinks it even small and contemptible without assigning a reason. The figure is, however, appropriate. As watches are set to keep the Nile in channels as soon as it breaks forth, and as men are set to watch that they may seize the crocodile immediately he moves here or there; so Job says all his movements are checked at the very commencement, and as soon as he desires to be more cheerful he feels the pang of some fresh pain. In Job 7:13, ב after נשׂא is partitive, as Numbers 11:17; Mercier correctly: non nihil querelam meam levabit. If he hopes for such repose, it forthwith comes to nought, since he starts up affrighted from his slumber. Hideous dreams often disturb the sleep of those suffering with elephantiasis, says Avicenna (in Stickel, S. 170). Then he desires death; he wishes that his difficulty of breathing would increase to suffocation, the usual end of elephantiasis. מחנק is absolute (without being obliged to point it מחנק with Schlottm.), as e.g., מרמס, Isaiah 10:6 (Ewald, 160, c). He prefers death to these his bones, i.e., this miserable skeleton or framework of bone to which he is wasted away. He despises, i.e., his life, Job 9:21. Amid such suffering he would not live for ever. הבל, like רוּח, Job 7:7.

Job 7:20 Parallel Commentaries

I have sinned.

Job 9:29-31 If I be wicked, why then labor I in vain...

Job 13:26 For you write bitter things against me, and make me to possess the iniquities of my youth.

Job 14:16 For now you number my steps: do you not watch over my sin?

Job 22:5 Is not your wickedness great? and your iniquities infinite?

Job 31:33 If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom:

Job 33:9,27 I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me...

Psalm 80:4 O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?

O thou preserver.

Nehemiah 9:6 You, even you, are LORD alone; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth...

Psalm 36:6 Your righteousness is like the great mountains; your judgments are a great deep: O LORD, you preserve man and beast.

why hast.

Job 7:12 Am I a sea, or a whale, that you set a watch over me?

Job 6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinks up my spirit...

Job 16:12-14 I was at ease, but he has broken me asunder: he has also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark...

Psalm 21:12 Therefore shall you make them turn their back, when you shall make ready your arrows on your strings against the face of them.

Lamentations 3:12 He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

I am.

Job 7:11 Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

Job 3:24 For my sighing comes before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.