Job 7:6 kjv
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.
Job 7:6 nkjv
"My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, And are spent without hope.
Job 7:6 niv
"My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and they come to an end without hope.
Job 7:6 esv
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and come to their end without hope.
Job 7:6 nlt
"My days fly faster than a weaver's shuttle.
They end without hope.
Job 7 6 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Brevity of Life / Fleeting Time | ||
| Ps 90:9-10 | For all our days pass away... we finish our years with a groan. The days... seventy years... swiftly gone. | Life is short and full of groaning. |
| Ps 103:15-16 | As for man, his days are like grass... for the wind passes over it, and it is gone. | Human life is as transient as grass. |
| Ps 144:4 | Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow. | Human existence is ephemeral. |
| Ecc 6:12 | Who knows what is good for man in life, during the few days of his vain life...? | Life is brief and meaningless without God. |
| Ecc 9:10 | Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work... in Sheol. | Emphasis on living fully due to life's brevity. |
| Jas 4:14 | You are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. | Life's extreme brevity. |
| 1 Chr 29:15 | For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days... like a shadow. | Life on earth is temporary. |
| Job 8:9 | For we are but of yesterday... our days on earth are a shadow. | Reflects common wisdom on life's brevity. |
| Despair / Loss of Hope | ||
| Lam 3:18 | So I say, "My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD." | Deep lament of lost hope. |
| Prov 13:12 | Hope deferred makes the heart sick... | Explains the impact of prolonged waiting for hope. |
| Jer 17:16 | I have not run away from being a shepherd... for your words were what gave me no hope. | Speaker experiences despair related to divine words. |
| Job 17:15 | Where then is my hope? Who would see my hope? | Job’s direct questioning of hope's existence. |
| Job 14:7 | For there is hope for a tree... that it will sprout again... But man dies... | Contrast: nature revives, man does not (from Job's perspective). |
| Ps 42:5 | Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God! | Speaker addresses personal despair, urging hope in God. |
| Hope in God / Future Hope (Contrast) | ||
| Ps 39:7 | And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you. | Despite life's fleeting nature, hope is in God. |
| Rom 5:3-5 | We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. | Suffering can lead to hope in Christ. |
| Rom 8:24-25 | For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope... But if we hope... we wait for it with patience. | Christian hope as patient endurance. |
| Heb 6:18-19 | ...we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine... | Christian hope is a steadfast anchor in Christ. |
| 1 Pet 1:3 | ...born us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. | Resurrection as the basis for living hope. |
| Ps 71:14 | But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more. | Decision to maintain hope and praise God. |
| Titus 2:13 | ...waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. | Christian hope focused on Christ's return. |
Job 7 verses
Job 7 6 Meaning
Job 7:6 captures Job's deep despair and profound sense of life's brevity. He perceives his days as moving with extreme swiftness, akin to a weaver's shuttle, emphasizing their rapid, almost unnoticeable passage. More significantly, he declares that these rapidly vanishing days are utterly "spent without hope," signifying a complete lack of expectation for improvement, relief, or a meaningful future, compounding his immense suffering with a crushing sense of futility.
Job 7 6 Context
Job 7:6 is part of Job's second discourse, specifically his passionate lament and direct address to God (Job 7:1-21), following Eliphaz's second speech. In Chapter 7, Job continues to voice his profound distress, seeing his life as an unceasing torment. He compares himself to a weary slave longing for rest and a hired worker longing for his wages (Job 7:1-2), illustrating his desire for the cessation of suffering through death. He describes his nights as filled with dread and agony (Job 7:3-5). Within this deeply personal complaint, Job reflects on the swift and seemingly futile passage of his remaining days, expressing a sense of absolute hopelessness. His perception is that his suffering has consumed his future, leaving only an empty, rapidly approaching end.
Job 7 6 Word analysis
My days: לְמוֹ (l'mo) is a poetic form for "my" plus 'days' (יָמָי yāmay). In ancient thought, "days" represent not merely chronological units but the sum total of one's lived experience, destiny, or allotted lifespan. Job is lamenting the quality and nature of his entire remaining existence.
are swifter: קַלּוּ (qallu) – derived from the root קָלַל (qalal), meaning "to be light," "to be swift," or "to be trifling/insignificant." The verb emphasizes extreme speed, as if the days have no weight or substance, slipping away unobserved and uncontrolled.
than a weaver's shuttle: מִנִּי אָרֶג (minnī 'āreg) – "from/than the weaver/loom." 'Āreg (אָרֶג) refers to the act of weaving or the woven fabric. While "shuttle" (חֶלֶף kheleph) is implied for the weaving process, the Hebrew directly translates to 'from/than the weaver' or 'weaving itself'. The image evoked is the rapid, almost invisible, back-and-forth motion of the shuttle on the loom, which swiftly produces a fabric or consumes the thread, indicating silent speed and relentless progress towards completion or an end.
and are spent: וַיִּכְלוּ (wayyikhlû) – from the root כָּלָה (kālâ), meaning "to be completed," "finished," "consumed," or "to come to an end." This word highlights the idea of finality and utter exhaustion. It's not just that days pass, but they are fully used up or brought to a definitive conclusion.
without hope: בְּלֹא תִקְוָה (bəlō' tiqvāh) – "without" (בְּלֹא belō') and "hope" (תִקְוָה tiqvāh). The word tiqvāh signifies "cord," "line," and metaphorically, "expectation" or "hope." Just as a cord offers security or a way to pull something to safety, hope provides a future orientation and sense of anticipation for something positive. Job’s statement means his life is unraveling without any such security, any lifeline, or any positive anticipation. It indicates complete and utter despair regarding any future amelioration of his suffering or a return to his former life.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle: This phrase vividly portrays the brevity and rapid progression of time from Job's suffering perspective. It's not merely that life is short, but that his days are so filled with pain or perceived emptiness that they seem to rush towards an unwanted end, offering no reprieve. The analogy suggests that just as the shuttle’s movement produces a finished cloth, Job’s days quickly lead him towards the completion of his life, which he perceives as merely fading away.
and are spent without hope: This second clause adds the crucial emotional and spiritual dimension to the temporal swiftness. The days not only vanish quickly, but they vanish meaninglessly in terms of his current experience. There is no positive expectation, no future consolation, no perceived purpose in the suffering, and no light at the end of the tunnel. This highlights Job's acute existential crisis and his conviction that his ordeal has deprived him of any reason to look forward to tomorrow.
Job 7 6 Bonus section
The metaphor of the weaver's shuttle connects Job's lament to an everyday experience, making his profound despair relatable to an agrarian and artisan society. It signifies efficiency, speed, and production—yet for Job, this efficiency means his life is swiftly, but futilely, spun out to its end. The 'without hope' stands in stark contrast to the divine promise of ultimate hope and redemption found elsewhere in Scripture (e.g., in Christ’s resurrection). Job's perspective is limited to his immediate suffering, reflecting the human condition's struggle to perceive divine purpose within pain. This verse profoundly encapsulates the cry of a soul deeply afflicted, illustrating that despair can be a consequence not just of the suffering itself, but of the perception that the suffering is pointless and without end.
Job 7 6 Commentary
Job 7:6 serves as a powerful expression of Job’s agony, where the relentless progression of time is interwoven with profound despair. The metaphor of the weaver’s shuttle is highly effective because it communicates both rapid motion and the silent, seemingly inevitable process of consumption. Just as threads are rapidly used up to form a fabric, Job feels his life is swiftly being consumed by suffering, moving inexorably towards its conclusion.
The concluding phrase, "and are spent without hope," elevates the verse from a simple lament about brevity to a profound statement of spiritual and existential crisis. For Job, his future is a void. He does not envision recovery, justice, or a return to prosperity. His current condition has robbed him of all expectation, reflecting the deep anguish that can accompany severe, inexplicable suffering. This feeling is not merely sadness but a profound hopelessness where life's swift passage is no longer a cause for urgency, but for a wish for annihilation. This challenges the simplistic theology of his friends, who believed righteous living ensured prosperity and that suffering implied sin, for Job knows his righteousness and yet finds himself in a hopeless pit.