Job 7:3

thus ¹  I have been made to inherit ²  months of futility, ³  and nights of sorrow ⁴  have been appointed ⁵  to me.

so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me.

So am I allotted months of vanity, And nights of trouble are appointed me.

I, too, have been assigned months of futility, long and weary nights of misery.

I'm given a life that meanders and goes nowhere--months of aimlessness, nights of misery!

So I have for my heritage months of pain to no purpose, and nights of weariness are given to me.

so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

So I have been allotted months of futility, And wearisome nights have been appointed to me.

thus ¹  I have been made to inherit ²  months of futility, ³  and nights of sorrow ⁴  have been appointed ⁵  to me.

¹ tn “Thus” indicates a summary of vv. 1 and 2: like the soldier, the mercenary, and the slave, Job has labored through life and looks forward to death.

² tn The form is the Hophal perfect of נָחַל (nakhal): “I have been made to inherit,” or more simply, “I have inherited.” The form occurs only here. The LXX must have confused the letters or sounds, a ו (vav) for the ן (nun), for it reads “I have endured.” As a passive the form technically has two accusatives (see GKC 388 §121.c). Job’s point is that his sufferings have been laid on him by another, and so he has inherited them.

³ tn The word is שָׁוְא (shav’, “vanity, deception, nothingness, futility”). His whole life – marked here in months to show its brevity – has been futile. E. Dhorme (Job, 98) suggests the meaning “disillusionment,” explaining that it marks the deceptive nature of mortal life. The word describes life as hollow, insubstantial.

⁴ tn “Sorrow” is עָמָל (’amal), used in 3:10. It denotes anxious toil, labor, troublesome effort. It may be that the verse expresses the idea that the nights are when the pains of his disease are felt the most. The months are completely wasted; the nights are agonizing.

⁵ tn The verb is literally “they have appointed”; the form with no expressed subject is to be interpreted as a passive (GKC 460 §144.g). It is therefore not necessary to repoint the verb to make it passive. The word means “to number; to count,” and so “to determine; to allocate.”