How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?
Job 7:19 occurs in Job's answer to Eliphaz, where after being told not to despise God's chastening he justifies his complaints. It belongs to Job's affliction, which displays the problems of overruling providence and of sin and suffering that have perplexed humanity through all ages. In that affliction God was disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire while his three friends charged him with sin and declared his sufferings were because of that sin.
The verse gives voice to the extremity of suffering, pleading to be left alone even for a brief moment. It portrays a spirit so dried up by calamity that it longs for respite. Yet even in such dried-up and unpromising circumstances, faith can still discern life and blessing. Job's experience in this warns against misjudging fellow sufferers today in the same way his friends misjudged him.
Job 7:19 occurs in Job's answer to Eliphaz, where after being told not to despise God's chastening he justifies his complaints. It belongs to Job's affliction, which displays the problems of overruling providence and of sin and suffering that have perplexed humanity through all ages. In that affliction God was disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire while his three friends charged him with sin and declared his sufferings were because of that sin.
The verse gives voice to the extremity of suffering, pleading to be left alone even for a brief moment. It portrays a spirit so dried up by calamity that it longs for respite. Yet even in such dried-up and unpromising circumstances, faith can still discern life and blessing. Job's experience in this warns against misjudging fellow sufferers today in the same way his friends misjudged him.