Job 7:15
in Job 7so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
So that my soul chooseth strangling, And death rather than these my bones.
KJV
So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life.
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This verse in Job 7
Commentary
11 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
So that my soul - So that I; the soul being put for himself. Chooseth strangling - Dr. Good renders it “suffocation,” and supposes that Job alludes to the oppression of breathing, produced by what is commonly called the night-mare, and that he means that he would prefer the sense of suffocation excited at such a time to the terrible images before his mind. Herder renders it, death. Jerome, suspendium. The Septuagint, “Thou separatest (ἀπαλλάξεις apallaceis) my life from my spirit, and my bones from death;” but what idea they attached to it, it is impossible now to tell.
This site's exposition
When I think my bed will comfort me
on Job 7:13-16
Even sleep is taken from Job: when he thinks "my bed will comfort me," then "You frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions". The line "I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body" is the book's plainest statement of a wish to die.
This site's exposition
I would prefer strangling and death
Body here is literally bones, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note, the frame the disease has left. Clarke ties strangling to the terror of the dreams in verse 14. He would prefer death to that life.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"I beg of you. Take away my life. Deliver me from my pains through death. In fact, you did not create me immortal. So … may [I] enjoy quiet and tranquility in the future. I do not demand, O Lord, anything contrary to your decree. …
The Medieval Church3 voices
A commentator
BonaventureItinerarium Mentis in Deum, Chapter 7 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
But if you ask how these things come about, ask grace, not doctrine; desire, not understanding; the groaning of prayer, not the study of reading; the Bridegroom, not the master; God, not man; darkness, not clarity; not light, but the fire that wholly inflames and …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book VIII · Written before 604.
proposed
So that my soul chooseth hanging and my bones death. What is then represented by the soul but the bent of the soul, and by the bones, the strength of the flesh? Now every thing that is hung is assuredly lifted up from things beneath; therefore 'the soul chooseth hanging that the bones may die,' in that whilst the mind's intent lifts itself on high, it extinguishes all the strength of the exterior life in itself.
So, then, when consolation is refused me from every side and no way remains for me to escape so many anguishes but death, I therefore prefer death however abject to such a painful life. He then expresses this saying, "This is why my soul has …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
My days are vanity at the best, empty of solid comfort, exposed to real griefs; and I would not be for ever tied to such uncertainty." Note, A good man would not (if he might) life always in this world, no, not though it smile upon him, because it is a world of sin and temptation and he has a better world in prospect.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
So that my soul chooseth strangling,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Perhaps the meaning is simply, "My soul chooses (even) strangling (or any violent death) rather than my life," literally, "my bones" (Ps 35:10); that is, rather than the wasted and diseased skeleton, left to him.
Chooseth strangling - It is very likely that he felt, in those interrupted and dismal slumbers, an oppression and difficulty of breathing something like the incubus or nightmare; and, distressing as this was, he would prefer death by this means to any longer life in such miseries.
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַתִּבְחַ֣ר | vativchar | and it chose | H977 → | 171 times |
| מַחֲנָ֣ק | machanak | strangling | H4267 → | |
| נַפְשִׁ֑י | nafshi | self my | H5315 → | 754 times |
| מָ֝֗וֶת | mavet | death | H4194 → | 156 times |
| מֵֽעַצְמוֹתָֽי׃ | meatzmotai | more than bones my | H6106 → | 126 times |
וַתִּבְחַ֣רand it chose
vativcharH977 →171 times
מַחֲנָ֣קstrangling
machanakH4267 →
נַפְשִׁ֑יself my
nafshiH5315 →754 times
מָ֝֗וֶתdeath
mavetH4194 →156 times
מֵֽעַצְמוֹתָֽי׃more than bones my
meatzmotaiH6106 →126 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
2 Samuel 17:23When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set out for his house in his hometown. He put his affairs in order and hanged himself. So he…
it leads to
- Matthew 27:5
So Judas threw the silver into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.
- 1 Kings 16:18
When Zimri saw that the city was captured, he entered the citadel of the royal palace and burned it down upon himself. So he died
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 2 Samuel 15:12
While Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, to come from his hometown of Giloh. So the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom’s following kept increasing.
- 2 Kings 20:1
In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to…
- Psalms 5:10
Declare them guilty, O God; let them fall by their own devices. Drive them out for their many transgressions, for they have rebelled against You.
- Matthew 27:5
Through
Matthew 27:5So Judas threw the silver into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.
it leads to
- Acts 1:18–19
(Now with the reward for his wickedness Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong and burst open in the middle, and all his intestines spilled out.
- 2 Samuel 17:23
When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set out for his house in his hometown. He put his affairs in order and hanged himself. So he…
- Luke 1:9
he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
- Acts 1:18–19
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bonaventure, Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Chapter 7; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book VIII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Olympiodorus of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON JOB 7:15 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.