Discovery BoxJob 7:16 
Context7:16 I loathe 1 it; 2 I do not want to live forever;
leave me alone, 3 for my days are a vapor! 4
Job 21:14
Context21:14 So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us!
We do not want to 5 know your ways. 6
Job 30:3
Context30:3 gaunt 7 with want and hunger,
they would gnaw 8 the parched land,
in former time desolate and waste. 9
Job 37:20
Context37:20 Should he be informed that I want 10 to speak?
If a man speaks, surely he would be swallowed up!
1 tn E. Dhorme (Job, 107-8) thinks the idea of loathing or despising is problematic since there is no immediate object. He notes that the verb מָאַס (ma’as, “loathe”) is parallel to מָסַס (masas, “melt”) in the sense of “flow, drip” (Job 42:6). This would give the idea “I am fading away” or “I grow weaker,” or as Dhorme chooses, “I am pining away.”
2 tn There is no object for the verb in the text. But the most likely object would be “my life” from the last verse, especially since in this verse Job will talk about not living forever. Some have thought the object should be “death,” meaning that Job despised death more than the pains. But that is a forced meaning; besides, as H. H. Rowley points out, the word here means to despise something, to reject it. Job wanted death.
3 tn Heb “cease from me.” This construction means essentially “leave me in peace.”
4 tn This word הֶבֶל (hevel) is difficult to translate. It means “breath; puff of air; vapor” and then figuratively, “vanity.” Job is saying that his life is but a breath – it is brief and fleeting. Compare Ps 144:4 for a similar idea.
5 tn The absence of the preposition before the complement adds greater vividness to the statement: “and knowing your ways – we do not desire.”
6 sn Contrast Ps 25:4, which affirms that walking in God’s ways means to obey God’s will – the Torah.
7 tn This word, גַּלְמוּד (galmud), describes something as lowly, desolate, bare, gaunt like a rock.
8 tn The form is the plural participle with the definite article – “who gnaw.” The article, joined to the participle, joins on a new statement concerning a preceding noun (see GKC 404 §126.b).
9 tn The MT has “yesterday desolate and waste.” The word “yesterday” (אֶמֶשׁ, ’emesh) is strange here. Among the proposals for אֶמֶשׁ (’emesh), Duhm suggested יְמַשְּׁשׁוּ (yÿmashÿshu, “they grope”), which would require darkness; Pope renders “by night,” instead of “yesterday,” which evades the difficulty; and Fohrer suggested with more reason אֶרֶץ (’erets), “a desolate and waste land.” R. Gordis (Job, 331) suggests יָמִישׁוּ / יָמֻשׁוּ (yamishu/yamushu), “they wander off.”
10 tn This imperfect works well as a desiderative imperfect.
