Job 10:5

Job 10:5 [Are] thy days as the days of man? [are] thy years as man’s days,

Ver. 5. Are thy days as the days of man?] Art thou mortal and short lived, as sorry man is, that thou proceedest in this sudden and severe manner, as if thou shouldest not have time enough to try me, and to take an order with me? Art not thou eternal, and dost thou not know in the indivisible moment of thine eternity, all what hath been, is, and shall be? "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world," Act 15:18; yea, long before. The truth is, neither foreknowledge nor remembrance are properly in God, since all things, both past and future, are present with him, Rom 4:17 2Pe 3:8 Jer 1:5-7 Psa 139:2; and all things without him are but as a point or ball, which with as much ease he discerneth as we turn our eyes.

Are thy years as man’s days] It is well observed that God’s time is set out by years, man’s by days; his time is so short, that it is reckoned by the shortest complete time, a day. The days of our years are threescore and ten, Psa 90:10. As for God, he is not only the Ancient of days, Dan 7:9, but the day’s Ancient, for he made the day.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 10:5. Are thy days as the days of man? — Man’s time is short and uncertain, and therefore he must improve it, and diligently search out the crimes of malefactors, lest by death he lose the opportunity of doing justice: but thou art eternal, and seest at one view all men’s hearts, and all their actions, present and to come; and therefore thou dost not need to proceed with me in this manner, by making so long a scrutiny into my heart and life.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Art thou inconstant and changeable, as the times, today a friend, tomorrow an enemy?

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 5. Are thy days as the days of man] אנוש enosh, wretched, miserable man. Thy years as man's days; גבר gaber, the strong man. Thou art not short-lived, like man in his present imperfect state; nor can the years of the long-lived patriarchs be compared with thine. The difference of the phraseology in the original justifies this view of the subject. Man in his low estate cannot be likened unto thee; nor can he in his greatest excellence, though made in thy own image and likeness, be compared to thee.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5–7. Then he asks if God’s life be brief like human life, that by the inquisition of chastisements He seeks to bring Job’s sin to light, lest His victim should outlive Him, and hurries on his punishment lest some one should rescue His captive from His hand.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Are thy days as the days of man?.... No, they are not: not so few; the days of the years of man's life in common are threescore years and ten, Psa 90:10; but a thousand years with the Lord are but as one day, Pe2 3:8; his days are days not of time, but of eternity: nor so mutable, or he so mutable in them; man is of one mind today, and of another tomorrow; but the Lord is in one mind one day as another; he is the Lord that changes not, Mal 3:6; immutable in his nature, purposes, promises, and affections: but Job suggests as if his dispensations towards him showed the contrary; one day smiling upon him, and heaping his favours on him, and the next frowning on him, and stripping him of all: but this was a wrong way of judging; for, though God may change the dispensations of his providence towards men, and particularly his own people, his nature changes not, nor does he change his will, his purposes, and designs, nor his love and affection:

are thy years as man's days? as few as they, or fail like them? no, he is the same, and his years fail not, and has the same good will to his people in adverse as well as in prosperous dispensations of his providence. Some understand all this in such sense, in connection with what follows, as if Job had observed, that since God was omniscient, and knew and saw all persons and things, his eyes not being like men's eyes, eyes of flesh; and since he was eternal, and wanted not for time, there was no need for him to take such methods as he did with him, through afflictive providences, to find out his sin; since, if he was guilty, it was at once known to him; nor need he be in such haste to do it, since his time was not short, as it is with an envious and ill natured man, who is for losing no time to find out and take an advantage of him he bears an ill will unto.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Are thy days as the days of man - Does thy life pass on like that of man? Dost thou expect soon to die, that thou dost pursue me in this manner, searching out my sins, and afflicting me as if there were no time to lose? The idea is, that God seemed to press this matter as if he were soon to cease to exist, and as if there were no time to spare in accomplishing it. His strokes were unintermitted, as if it were necessary that the work should be done soon, and as if no respite could be given for a full and fair development of the real character of the sufferer. The whole passage Job 10:4-7 expresses the settled conviction of Job that God could not resemble man; Man was short lived, fickle, blind; he was incapable, from the brevity of his existence, and from his imperfections, of judging correctly of the character of others. But it could not be so with God. He was eternal. He knew the heart. He saw everything as it was. Why, then, Job asks with deep feeling, did he deal with him as if he were influenced by the methods of judgment which were inseparable from the condition of imperfect and dying man?

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Days, sometimes denote judgments, 1 Corinthians iv. 3. Is God liable to change, like men, or does he stand in need of time to examine them, or fear lest they should escape? (Calmet) --- Is it necessary for him to prove his friends, to know their real dispositions? (Sanctius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Man’s time is short and uncertain, and therefore he must improve his time whilst he hath it, and diligently search out the crimes of malefactors, and punish them whilst he may, lest by death he lose the opportunity of doing justice, and the criminal get out of his power. But it is not so with thee, thou art eternal and unchangeable, and seest at one view all men’s hearts, and all their actions present and to come; and therefore thou dost not need to proceed with me in this manner, by making so long and so severe a scrutiny into my heart and life.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. As man’s days — The third reason Job gives is, that God’s years are not limited like the days of men. There is, therefore, no danger that man should outlive Deity, and thus escape his just deserts. Consequently hurried judgment is unworthy an eternal God.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Are thy days as man"s days? In short-lived man, shortsightedness and prejudice are excusable, but not in one whose days are unlike man"s days whose "years endure throughout all generations". (Psa_102:24) Such a one ought to be above all human infirmity. Or thy years as man"s days? We should have expected "as man"s years. " But it marks the disparity more strongly to say, "Are thy years not greater in number even than man"s literally, "a strong man"s days?"

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Man's - Man's time is short and uncertain, and therefore he must improve it, and diligently search out the crimes of malefactors, lest by death he lose the opportunity of doing justice: but thou art eternal, and seest at one view all mens hearts, and all their actions present and to come; and therefore thou dost not need to proceed with me in this manner, by making so long a scrutiny into my heart and life.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Are Your days like the days of a mortal to provoke him and pursue [him]?

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.