Job 7 · Verse 15

Job 7:15

So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life.
Job 7:15, King James Version

Job 7:15 in other translations

BSBso that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body.
WEBso that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.
ASVSo that my soul chooseth strangling, And death rather than these my bones.
YLTAnd my soul chooseth strangling, Death rather than my bones.
DARBYSo that my soul chooseth strangling, death, rather than my bones.
BBESo that a hard death seems better to my soul than my pains.
WebsterSo that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life.

What does Job 7:15 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
15. Umbreit translates, "So that I could wish to strangle myself--dead by my own hands." He softens this idea of Job's harboring the thought of suicide, by representing it as entertained only in agonizing dreams, and immediately repudiated with horror in Job 7:16, "Yet that (self-strangling) I loathe." This is forcible and graphic. Perhaps the meaning is simply, "My soul chooses (even) strangling (or any violent death) rather than my life," literally, "my bones" (Psa 35:10); that is, rather than the wasted and diseased skeleton, left to him. In this view, "I loathe it" (Job 7:16) refers to his life.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 15 Chooseth strangling - It is very likely that he felt, in those interrupted and dismal slumbers, an oppression and difficulty of breathing something like the incubus or nightmare; and, distressing as this was, he would prefer death by this means to any longer life in such miseries.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Job 7:7-16

Plain truths as to the shortness and vanity of man's life, and the certainty of death, do us good, when we think and speak of them with application to ourselves. Dying is done but once, and therefore it had need be well done. An error here is past retrieve. Other clouds arise, but the same cloud never returns: so a new generation of men is raised up, but the former generation vanishes away. Glorified saints shall…

Read the full comment on Job 7:7-16 →

Job 7:15 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

וַתִּבְחַ֣רva.tiv.Charand it choseH977
מַחֲנָ֣קma.cha.NakstranglingH4267
נַפְשִׁ֑יnaf.Shiself myH5315
מָ֝֗וֶתMa.vetdeathH4194
מֵֽעַצְמוֹתָֽי\׃Me.'atz.mo.Taimore than bones myH6106

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Job 7:15

  • Matthew 27:5

    And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.

  • 2 Samuel 17:23

    And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
chooseth.
2Sa 17:23; Mt 27:5
life. Heb. bones.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Job 7:14

    Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions:

  • Job 7:15

    So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life.

  • Job 7:16

    I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.

Read all of Job 7

Job 7:15 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Y así mi alma tuvo por mejor el ahogamiento, y quiso la muerte más que mis huesos.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Et mon âme choisit la suffocation, – plutôt la mort que mes os:
German
Elberfelder 1871		so daß meine Seele Erstickung vorzieht, den Tod lieber wählt als meine Gebeine.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Quam ob rem elegit suspendium anima mea, et mortem ossa mea.