Job 7:18

And that you visit ¹  them every morning, and try ²  them every moment? ³ 

that you examine him every morning and test him every moment?

That You examine him every morning And try him every moment?

For you examine us every morning and test us every moment.

That you check up on them every morning, looking in on them to see how they're doing?

And that your hand is on him every morning, and that you are testing him every minute?

visit them every morning, test them every moment?

That You should visit him every morning, And test him every moment?

And that you visit ¹  them every morning, and try ²  them every moment? ³ 

¹ tn The verb פָּקַד (paqad) is a very common one in the Bible; while it is frequently translated “visit,” the “visit” is never comparable to a social call. When God “visits” people it always means a divine intervention for blessing or cursing – but the visit always changes the destiny of the one visited. Here Job is amazed that God Almighty would be so involved in the life of mere human beings.

² tn Now the verb “to test” is introduced and gives further explanation to the purpose of the “visit” in the parallel line (see the same parallelism in Ps 17:3). The verb בָּחַן (bakhan) has to do with passing things through the fire or the crucible to purify the metal (see Job 23:10; Zech 13:3); metaphorically it means “to examine carefully” and “to purify by testing.”

³ sn The amazing thing is the regularity of the testing. Job is at first amazed that God would visit him; but even more is he amazed that God is testing him every moment. The employment of a chiasm with the two temporal adverbial phrases as the central elements emphasizes the regularity.