Job 7:3

So I am allotted months of futility, and nights of misery are appointed to me.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Job speaks from his own afflicted state, describing his prolonged suffering to God.

The words — שָׁ֑וְא (shav') translates literally to "worthlessness," and עָ֝מָ֗ל ('amal) means "trouble" or "misery."

The thread — The theme of futility echoes Ecclesiastes 1:14, while the concept of appointed suffering parallels the exhaustion and family devastation described in Job 16:7.

Why it lands — The text states that Job's days and nights are divinely assigned periods of worthlessness and trouble, demanding recognition of suffering as an appointed reality rather than a random accident.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

כֵּ֤ןkenso הָנְחַ֣לְתִּיha.ne.Chal.tiI have been allottedלִ֭יl/ifor/ myselfיַרְחֵי־yar.chei-months of שָׁ֑וְאShav'worthlessness וְלֵיל֥וֹתve./lei.Lotand/ nights of עָ֝מָ֗ל'a.Maltrouble מִנּוּ־mi.nu-people have allottedלִֽי׃L/ito/ me

King James Version

So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.

Cross-references

Psalms 6:6 I am weary from groaning; all night I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.
Ecclesiastes 1:14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.
Job 16:7 Surely He has now exhausted me; You have devastated all my family.
Job 29:2 “How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me,
Psalms 39:5 You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah