Job 7:2
in Job 7Like a slave he longs for shade; like a hireling he waits for his wages.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
As a servant that earnestly desireth the shadow, And as a hireling that looketh for his wages:
KJV
As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work:
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This verse in Job 7
Commentary
10 notes on this verseEarnestly desireth the shadow - As a man who labors hard in the heat of the day earnestly desires to get under a shade, or wishes for the long evening shadows, that he may rest from his labor, get his day’s wages, retire to his food, and then go to rest.
This site's exposition
Is not man consigned to labor on earth
on Job 7:1-3
Job reads his own life through the figure of a hired laborer: "Are not his days like those of a hired hand". The complaint grows from a bad day into a whole allotted season, Job's answer to the friends' view that his suffering is a passing correction.
This site's exposition
Like a slave he longs for shade
Barnes gives longs the sense of panting for breath. The slave longs for the evening shade and the hireling waits for his wages, and both wait for the end of the day. Henry takes the shade as a figure for death.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Not only is this life painful, but it is also frightful, because, after being wounded, I am now in the condition to fear the blows of the Lord. This is why I jump from one place to another in fright, like those slaves who are …
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book VIII · Written before 604.
proposed
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.
Therefore, since the whole position of Eliphaz is undermined by these arguments, Job intends to strengthen them and demonstrates them efficaciously from reason. For clearly, each thing rests when it attains its ultimate end. So once the human will has attained its ultimate end, it …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow,.... Either the shadow of some great rock, tree, or hedge, or any shady place to shelter him from the heat of the sun in the middle of the day, which in those eastern countries is hot and scorching; and very burdensome and fatiguing it is for servants and labourers to work in fields and vineyards, or in keeping herds and flocks in such countries, and at such a time of the day; to which the allusion is in Son 1:7 Isa 25:
The comparison is plain, the application is concise and somewhat obscure, but we must supply a word or two, and then it is easy: exactness of language is not to be expected from one in Job's condition. " As a servant earnestly desires the shadow, so and for the same reason I earnestly desire death; for I am made to possess, &c." Hear his complaint.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
earnestly desireth--Hebrew, "pants for the [evening] shadow." Easterners measure time by the length of their shadow. If the servant longs for the evening when his wages are paid, why may not Job long for the close of his hard service, when he shall enter on his "reward?" This proves that Job did not, as many maintain, regard the grave as a mere sleep.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
As a servant earnestly desireth - Margin, gapeth after. The word here שׁאף shâ'aph means to breathe hard, to pant, to blow, and then to desire earnestly. The shadow - This may refer either to a shade in the intense heat of the day, or to the night. Nothing is more grateful in oriental countries, when the sun pours down intensely on burning sands, than the shadow of a tree, or the shade of a projecting rock. The editor of the Pictorial Bible on this verse remarks, “We think we can say, that next to water, the greatest and deepest enjoyment we could ever realize in the hot climates of the East was, when on a journey, any circumstance of the road brought us for a few minutes under some shade. Its reviving influence upon the bodily frame, and consequently upon the spirits, is inconceivable by one who has not had some experience of the kind. Often also during the hall of a caravan in the open air, when the writer has been enabled to secure a station for repose under the shelter of a rock or of an old wall, has his own exultation and strong sense of luxurious enjoyment reminded him of this and other passages of Scripture, in which shade is mentioned as a thing punted for with intense desire.” Probably here, however, the reference is to the shades of night, the time when darkness falls upon the earth, and the servant is released from his toil. It is common in all languages to speak of night as enveloped with shadows. Thus, Virgil, En. iv. 7: Humentemque aurora polo dimoverat urnbram. The meaning of Job is, that as a servant looked impatiently for the shades of the evening when he would be dismissed from toil, so he longed for death. And as an hireling looketh - That is, he anxiously desires his work to be finished, and expects the reward of his labors. So Job looked to the reward of a life of toil and piety. Is there not here an undoubted reference to a future state? […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
Is not man on earth for a limited time This is what I said to you. ‘Agree and turn to me.’ because how can I be silent from crying our about my misfortune? Do you not know that the time a man has to live is limited?
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כְּעֶ֥בֶד | keeved | like a slave | H5650 → | 799 times |
| יִשְׁאַף־ | yishaf- | [who] he pants for | H7602 → | 14 times |
| צֵ֑ל | tzel | shade | H6738 → | 49 times |
| וּ֝כְשָׂכִ֗יר | ukhesakhir | and like a hired laborer | H7916 → | 17 times |
| יְקַוֶּ֥ה | yekaveh | [who] he longs for | H6960 → | 49 times |
| פָעֳלֽוֹ׃ | foolo | wage[s] his | H6467 → | 37 times |
כְּעֶ֥בֶדlike a slave
keevedH5650 →799 times
יִשְׁאַף־[who] he pants for
yishaf-H7602 →14 times
צֵ֑לshade
tzelH6738 →49 times
וּ֝כְשָׂכִ֗ירand like a hired laborer
ukhesakhirH7916 →17 times
יְקַוֶּ֥ה[who] he longs for
yekavehH6960 →49 times
פָעֳלֽוֹ׃wage[s] his
fooloH6467 →37 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
James 5:4Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 22:13
“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Leviticus 19:13
You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 24:14–15
Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 22:13
Through
Malachi 3:5“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud…
it leads to
- James 5:4
Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- James 5:8–9
You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.
- Hebrews 13:4
Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
- Deuteronomy 5:11
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain.
- James 5:4
Through
Leviticus 19:13You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.
it leads to
- Malachi 3:5
“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Malachi 3:5
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; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book VIII; Hesychius of Jerusalem, HOMILIES ON JOB 10.7.2-3; 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 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.