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The Brevity of Life

“Does not humanity have hard service[a] on earth?
Are not their days also like the days of a hired man?[b]

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Footnotes

  1. Job 7:1 tn The word צָבָא (tsavaʾ) is actually “army”; it can be used for the hard service of military service as well as other toil. As a military term it would include the fixed period of duty (the time) and the hard work (toil). Job here is considering the lot of all humans, not just himself.
  2. Job 7:1 tn The שָׂכִיר (sakhir) is a hired man, either a man who works for wages, or a mercenary soldier (Jer 46:21). The latter sense may be what is intended here in view of the parallelism, although the next verse seems much broader.

“Do not mortals have hard service(A) on earth?(B)
    Are not their days like those of hired laborers?(C)

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