Job 7:1

“Does not humanity have hard service ¹  on earth? Are not their days also like the days of a hired man? ² 

Le 25:50; De 15:18; Job 14:5,13,14; Job 14:6; Ps 39:4; Ec 8:8; Isa 21:16; Isa 38:5; Mt 20:1-15; Joh 11:9,10

¹ tn The word צָבָא (tsava’) 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 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.