Bible Strands
Job 7:4
When I lie down I think: ‘When will I get up?’ But the night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks from his suffering, directly following his declaration that he has been allotted months of futility and nights of misery.
The words — The Hebrew שָׁכַ֗בְתִּי (sha.Khav.ti) means "I lay down," followed by מָתַ֣י (ma.Tai) for "when?" and אָ֭קוּם ('A.kum) for "will I arise," which literally frame the repeated question of waking.
The thread — The motif of distorted time and sleepless distress appears in Deuteronomy 28:67 and Psalms 77:4, while Job 7:13 similarly records his expectation that his bed would bring comfort.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition of how prolonged suffering warps the natural rhythm of rest, forcing the reader to confront the raw reality of unrelieved pain without spiritualizing it.
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
King James Version
When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 28:67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread in your hearts of the terrifying sights you will see.
- Job 7:13 When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint,
- Psalms 77:4 You have kept my eyes from closing; I am too troubled to speak.
- Job 30:17 Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest.
- Psalms 6:6 I am weary from groaning; all night I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.
- Psalms 130:6 My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning—more than watchmen wait for the morning.
- Job 17:12 They have turned night into day, making light seem near in the face of darkness.
- Psalms 109:23 I am fading away like a lengthening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.
- Isaiah 54:11 “O afflicted city, lashed by storms, without solace, surely I will set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with sapphires.