Job 7:2

Like a servant ¹  longing for the evening shadow, ²  and like a hired man looking ³  for his wages, ⁴ 

Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired man waiting eagerly for his wages,

"As a slave who pants for the shade, And as a hired man who eagerly waits for his wages,

like a worker who longs for the day to end, like a servant waiting to be paid.

Like field hands longing for quitting time and working stiffs with nothing to hope for but payday,

As a servant desiring the shades of evening, and a workman looking for his payment:

Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like laborers who look for their wages,

Like a servant who earnestly desires the shade, And like a hired man who eagerly looks for his wages,

Like a servant ¹  longing for the evening shadow, ²  and like a hired man looking ³  for his wages, ⁴ 

¹ tn This term עֶבֶד (’eved) is the servant or the slave. He is compelled to work through the day, in the heat; but he longs for evening, when he can rest from the slavery.

² tn The expression יִשְׁאַף־צֵל (yish’af tsel, “longing for the evening shadow”) could also be taken as a relative clause (without the relative pronoun): “as a servant [who] longs for the evening shadow” (see GKC 487 §155.g). In either case, the expressions in v. 2 emphasize the point of the comparison, which will be summed up in v. 3.

³ tn The two verbs in this verse stress the eager expectation and waiting. The first, שָׁאַף (sha’af), means “to long for; to desire”; and the second, קָוָה (qavah), has the idea of “to hope for; to look for; to wait.” The words would give the sense that the servant or hired man had the longing on his mind all day.

⁴ tn The word פֹּעַל (po’al) means “work.” But here the word should be taken as a metonymy, meaning the pay for the work that he has done (compare Jer 22:13).