Job 10:1

My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(1) I will leave.—Or, according to some, I will give free vent to the complaint that is upon me. (Comp. Job 9:27 of the last chapter)

Benson Commentary

Job 10:1. My soul is weary of my life — My soul is weary of dwelling in this rotten and miserable body; or, I am, from my heart or soul, weary of my life. Sol. Jarchi’s comment is, My soul loathes itself because I am alive. The Hebrew, however, נקתה נפשׁי בחיי, naketa napshi bechaji, may be properly rendered, My soul is cut off while I live; that is, I am dead while I live; I am in a manner buried alive. I will leave my complaint upon myself — I will continue to complain: and will take upon my self the hazard of so doing, and be willing to bear it. Let what will come on me, I must give my sorrows vent. Thus Ab. Ezra, “I will not restrain my grief, but leave or suffer it to take its course.” I will speak in the bitterness of my soul — My extreme misery forceth my complaints from me.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:1-7 Job, being weary of his life, resolves to complain, but he will not charge God with unrighteousness. Here is a prayer that he might be delivered from the sting of his afflictions, which is sin. When God afflicts us, he contends with us; when he contends with us, there is always a reason; and it is desirable to know the reason, that we may repent of and forsake the sin for which God has a controversy with us. But when, like Job, we speak in the bitterness of our souls, we increase guilt and vexation. Let us harbour no hard thoughts of God; we shall hereafter see there was no cause for them. Job is sure that God does not discover things, nor judge of them, as men do; therefore he thinks it strange that God continues him under affliction, as if he must take time to inquire into his sin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

My soul is weary of my life - compare the note at Job 7:16. The margin here is, Or," cut off while I live." The meaning in the margin is in accordance with the interpretation of Schultens. The Chaldee also renders it in a similar way: אתגזרת נפשי - my soul is cut off. But the more correct interpretation is that in our common version; and the sense is, that his soul, that is, that he himself was disgusted with life. It was a weary burden, and he wished to die.

I will leave my complaint upon myself - Noyes, "I will give myself up to complaint." Dr. Good, "I will let loose from myself my dark thoughts." The literal sense is, "I will leave complaint upon myself;" that is, I will give way to it; I will not restrain it; compare Job 7:11.

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul - See the notes, Job 7:11.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 10

Job 10:1-22. Job's Reply to Bildad Continued.

1. leave my complaint upon myself—rather, "I will give loose to my complaint" (Job 7:11).His life a burden; his complaint that he could not see the cause or end of God’s punishment: God delighteth not to oppress; nor was his innocence, though suspected by men, hid from God, Job 10 1-7. He argueth that, being God’s work, in his hands, receiving all from him, God would not destroy him, Job 10:8-13. His sins expose him to God’s wrath, which was terrible upon him, Job 10:14-17; curseth his birth: death desirable to him, Job 10:18-22.

So the sense is, My soul is weary of dwelling in this rotten and miserable carcass. Or, I am from my heart, or with my very soul, weary of my life; and therefore I may be excused if I complain. Or,

My soul is cut off while I live, i.e. I am dead whilst I live; I am in a manner buried alive.

I will leave my complaint upon myself: so the sense is, I will complain, and the burden or hazard of so doing I will take upon myself, and be willing to bear it; I must give my sorrows vent, let come on me what will, as he saith, Job 13:13. But the words may be read interrogatively, Shall I then (or how can I then) leave my complaint (i.e. give over complaining) within or concerning (as the Hebrew al oft signifies) myself? Or they may be rendered thus, I will strengthen (as this verb signifies, Nehemiah 3:8) my complaint against myself; whereby he implies that he would not complain against God so as to accuse him of injustice, but only against himself, or against his own life; or, concerning myself, i.e. I must renew and increase my complaints, as God renews and increases my sorrows.

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul; my extreme misery forceth my complaints from me.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

My soul is weary of my life,.... And yet nothing of a temporal blessing is more desirable than life; every man, generally speaking, is desirous of life, and of a long life too; soul and body are near and intimate companions, and are usually loath to part; but Job was weary of his life, willing to part with it, and longed to be rid of it; he "loathed" it, and so it may be here rendered (x), he would not live always, Job 7:15; his "soul" was uneasy to dwell any longer in the earthly tabernacle of his body, it being so full of pains and sores; for this weariness was not through the guilt of sin pressing him sore, or through the horror of conscience arising from it, so that he could not bear to live, as Cain and Judas; nor through indwelling sin being a burden to him, and a longing desire to be rid of it, and to be perfectly holy, to be with Christ in heaven, as the Apostle Paul, and other saints, at certain times; or through uneasiness at the sins of others, as Isaac and Rebekah, Lot, David, Isaiah, and others; nor on the account of the temptations of Satan, his fiery darts, his buffetings and siftings, which are very distressing; but on account of his outward afflictions, which were so very hard and pressing, and the apprehension he had of the anger and wrath of God, he treating him, as he thought, very severely, and as his enemy, together with the ill usage of his friends. The Targum renders it,"my soul is cut off in my life;''or I am dying while I live; I live a dying life, being in such pain of body, and distress of mind; and so other versions (y):

I will leave my complaint upon myself: not that he would leave complaining, or lay it aside, though some (z) render it to this sense; rather give a loose to it, and indulge it, than attempt to ease himself, and give vent to his grief and sorrow by it; but it should be "upon himself", a burden he would take upon himself, and not trouble others with it; he would not burden their ears with his complaints, but privately and secretly utter them to himself; for the word (a) used signifies "meditation", private discourse with himself, a secret and inward "bemoaning" of his case; but he did not continue long in this mind, as appears by the following clause: or since I can do no other but complain; if there is any blame in it, I will take it wholly upon myself; complain I must, let what will be the consequence of it; see Job 13:13; though the phrase may be rendered, as it is sometimes, "within myself", see Hosea 11:8; (b); and then the sense may be, shall I leave my inward moan within myself, and no longer contain? I will give myself vent; and though I have been blamed for saying so much as I have, I will say yet more:

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul: as one whose life is made bitter, against whom God had wrote and said bitter things, and had brought bitter afflictions upon him, which had occasioned bitter complaints in him, as well as he had been bitterly used by his friends; and amidst all this bitterness he is determined to speak out his mind freely and fully; or to speak "of the bitterness" (c) of his soul, and declare, by words, what he in his mind and body endured.

(x) "fastidit anima mea vitam meam", Beza, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (y) "Excisa est anima mea in vita mea", Pagninus, Vatablus; so Ben Gersom & Ben Melech. (z) So Junius & Tremellius. (a) "meditationem meam", Schindler, col. 1823. "my sighing", Broughton. (b) "intra me". Vid. Noldium, p. 701. (c) "in vel de a maritudine", Mercerus.

Geneva Study Bible

My soul is {a} weary of my life; I will leave my {b} complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

(a) I am more like a dead man, than to one that lives.

(b) I will make an ample declaration of my torments, accusing myself and not God.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

1. leave my complaint upon myself] Rather, give free course to my complaint, cf. ch. Job 7:11 seq.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 1-22. - Having answered Bildad, Job proceeds to pour out the bitterness of his soul in a pathetic complaint, which he addresses directly to God. There is not much that is novel in the long expostulation, which mainly goes over ground covered in ch. 3, 6, and 7; but some new grounds are alleged as pleas for mercy, if not for justice. These are

(1) that he is God's gesture, and in the past (at any rate) has been the object of his care (vers. 8, 8-12);

(2) that God must be above judging as man judges (vers. 4, 5);

(3) that God knows his innocence (ver. 7); and

(4) that he (Job) is entirely in God's power (ver. 7). In conclusion, Job begs for a little respite, a little time of comfort (ver. 20), before he descends into the darkness of the grave (vers. 21, 22). Verse 1. - My soul is weary of my life. This is better than the marginal rendering, and well expresses the original. It strikes the key-note of the chapter. I will leave my complaint upon myself; rather, I will give free course to my complaint over myself, or I will allow myself in the expression of it (see the Revised Version). Job implies that hitherto he has put some restraint upon himself, but now he will give full and free expression to his feelings. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul (comp. Job 7:11). Job 10:1

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

1 My soul is full of disgust with my life,

Therefore I will freely utter my complaint;

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

2 I will say to Eloah: Condemn me not;

Let me know wherefore Thou contendest with me!

His self-consciousness makes him desire that the possibility of answering for himself might be granted him; and since he is weary of life, and has renounced all claim for its continuance, he will at least give his complaints free course, and pray the Author of his sufferings that He would not permit him to die the death of the wicked, contrary to the testimony of his own conscience. נקטה is equivalent to נקטּה ot tnel, Ezekiel 6:9, after the usual manner of the contraction of double Ayin verbs (Genesis 11:6-7; Isaiah 19:3; Judges 5:5; Ezekiel 41:7; vid., Ges. 67, rem. 11); it may nevertheless be derived directly from נקט, for this secondary verb formed from the Niph. נקט is supported by the Aramaic. In like manner, in Genesis 17:11 perhaps a secondary verb נמל, and certainly in Genesis 9:19 and Isaiah 23:3 a secondary verb נפץ (1 Samuel 13:11), formed from the Niph. נפץ (Genesis 10:18), is to be supposed; for the contraction of the Niphal form נקומה into נקמה is impossible; and the supposition which has been advanced, of a root פצץ equals פוץ in the signification diffundere, dissipare is unnecessary. His soul is disgusted (fastidio affecta est, or fastidit) with his life, therefore he will give free course to his plaint (comp. Job 7:11). עלי is not super or de me, but, as Job 30:16, in me; it belongs to the Ego, as an expression of spontaneity: I in myself, since the Ego is the subject, ὑποκείμενον, of his individuality (Psychol. S. 151f.). The inner man is meant, which has the Ego over or in itself; from this the complaint shall issue forth as a stream without restraint; not, however, a mere gloomy lamentation over his pain, but a supplicatory complaint directed to God respecting the peculiar pang of his suffering, viz., this stroke which seems to come upon him from his Judge (ריב, seq. acc., as Isaiah 27:8), without his being conscious of that for which he is accounted guilty.