Job 7:13

Job 7:13 When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;

Ver. 13. When I say, My bed shall comfort me] The bed was the most proper and probable means of refreshment; but it is not the bed that can give sleep, nor the couch ease. Creatures are not able of themselves to give out the comforts committed to them; their common nature must be assisted with a special word of blessing, or else they do us no good: man liveth not by bread only, &c. God maketh the merciful man’s bed, Psa 41:3. So he giveth his beloved sleep, quiet sleep (Shena with an Aleph quiescent), Psa 127:2 He is the God of all mercies, and the Father of all consolation, 2Co 1:3. It is he that shines through the creature, which else is but as the air, without light. Look how the air lights us not without the sun; and fuel heats us not without fire; so neither can any man or means comfort or content us without God.

My couch shall ease my complaint] Heb. Shall lift up, or take away, viz. the burden of my cares and grief; some part of my load at least; but it happened otherwise: for - {see next verse}

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 7:13-14. My couch shall ease my complaint — By giving me sweet and quiet sleep, which may take off my sense of pain for that time. Then thou scarest me with dreams — With sad and frightful dreams. And terrifiest me with visions — With horrid apparitions; so that I am afraid to go to sleep, and my remedy proves as bad as my disease. This contributed no little to render the night so unwelcome and wearisome to him. How easily can God, when he pleases, meet us with terror there where we promised ourselves ease and repose. Nay, he can make us a terror to ourselves; and, as we have often contracted guilt, by the rovings of an unsanctified fancy, he can likewise, by the power of our imagination, create us a great deal of grief, and so make that our punishment which has often been our sin. Job’s dreams might probably arise, in part, from his distemper, but, no doubt, Satan also had a hand in them. We have reason to pray, that our dreams may neither defile nor disquiet us; neither tempt us to sin, nor torment us with fear; that he who keeps Israel, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, would keep us when we slumber and sleep. And we ought to bless God if we lie down and our sleep is sweet, and we are not thus scared.

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

7:13-14 Job’s sickbed dreams and visions echoed those of Eliphaz (4:12-16).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

13, 14. Further description of the plagues employed to subdue him.

ease my complaint] Complaint always means complaining, not malady; ch. Job_9:27, Job_10:1, Job_21:4, Job_23:2. When he looks for sleep

That knits up the ravelled sleeve of care,

Balm of hurt minds,

instead of finding it he is scared with dreams and terrified through visions. Such distressing dreams and terrors in sleep are said to be one of the symptoms of Elephantiasis.

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.

When I say, my bed shall comfort me,.... When he thought within himself that he would lie down upon his bed and try if he could get a little sleep, which might comfort and refresh him, and which he promised himself he should obtain by this means, as he had formerly had an experience of:

my couch shall ease my complaint; he concluded, that by lying down upon his couch, and falling asleep, it would give some ease of body and mind; that his body would, at least, for some time be free from pain, and his mind composed, and should cease from complaining for a while; which interval would be a relief to him, and of considerable service. Some render it, "my couch shall burn" (h); be all on fire, and torture me instead of giving ease; and so may have respect to his burning ulcers.

(h) "ardebit", Pagninus; so Kimchi in Sepher Shorash. & Ben Melech in loc.

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

When I say, My bed shall comfort me - The idea in this verse and the following is, that there was no intermission to his sorrows. Even the times when people usually sought repose were to him times of distress. Then he was disturbed and alarmed by the most frightful dreams and visions, and sleep fled from him.

Shall ease my complaint - The word rendered “shall ease” ישׂא yı̂śâ' means rather, shall bear; that is, shall lighten or sustain. The meaning is, that he sought relief on his bed.

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

By giving me sweet and quiet sleep, which may take off the sense of my torments for that while.

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

13. My bed — The bed (ערשׂ) was a canopied couch; in Amo_3:12; Amo_6:4, the synonym of luxury, while the couch, משׁכב, was the ordinary term for bed.

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

Vers. 13, 14. When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint. Sometimes, notwithstanding his many "wearisome nights" (ver. 5), Job would entertain a hope of a few hours" rest and tranquility, as, wearied and exhausted, he sought his couch, and laid himself down upon it, but only to be disappointed. Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions. Unpleasant dreams are said to be a symptom, or at any rate a frequent concomitant, of elephantiasis; but Job seems to speak of something worse than these. Horrible visions came upon him, which he believed to be sent directly from the Almighty, and which effectually disturbed his rest, making night hideous. Probably this was one of the modes in which Satan was permitted to try and test him.

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

General Information:

The writer continues to use parallelism in the first two verses, conveying a single idea using two different statements to emphasize Job's intense suffering. (See: Parallelism)

My bed will comfort me, and my couch will ease my complaint

Here "bed" and "couch" are metonyms for "sleep." In lying down to sleep, Job would hope to be comforted. The metonyms also have human attributes; they have the ability to comfort and ease a person. AT: "My bed, my couch, will be like someone who can comfort me" (See: Metonymy and Personification)

My bed ... my couch

These phrases refer to the same thing. AT: "My bed ... my bed"

you scare me

"you" here refers to God

strangling

killing a person by squeezing the throat and stopping the breathing

these bones of mine

Here Job uses the word "bones" to refer to his body. AT: "This body of mine" (See: Synecdoche)

translationWords

comfort

dream

vision

die

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

that my couch shall bear my speech The couch upon which I sleep at night will bear my trouble somewhat, and I will be able to restrain my speech.

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.