Job 7:16-18

The Voice

Job compares his treatment to God’s defeat of two mythic enemies of creation: Yam and Tannin. Ancient Near Eastern legends say that before God created the world, the “formless void” that existed was called “the deep.” When God separated the heavens from the earth, He divided the formless void with the horizon, leaving the waters of the earth below (the oceans) and the waters of the heavens above (the blue skies and clouds). Yam the sea god and Tannin the sea monster tried to interfere in this separation. God of course defeated them, imprisoning them in the sea with sandbars. Job’s reference to this myth shows he believes God is treating him unfairly, punishing him as brutally as He did these subhuman, rebellious creatures. Job, on the other hand, has not been rebellious to God.

¹⁶Job: I hate my life. I have no desire to keep on living.
        Leave me alone, God, for I have only a short time left.
¹⁷    What are these human beings, that You make so much of them—
        that You shower them with attention?
¹⁸    You examine them morning by morning;
        You test them moment by moment.