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Selected Verse: Job 7:6 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Job 7:6	Strong Concordance	My days [03117] are swifter [07043] than a weaver's shuttle [0708], and are spent [03615] without [0657] hope [08615].
	King James	My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
(Isa 38:12). Every day like the weaver's shuttle leaves a thread behind; and each shall wear, as he weaves. But Job's thought is that his days must swiftly be cut off as a web; without hope--namely, of a recovery and renewal of life (Job 14:19; Ch1 29:15).

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

(Isa 38:12). Every day like the weaver's shuttle leaves a thread behind; and each shall wear, as he weaves. But Job's thought is that his days must swiftly be cut off as a web;

without hope--namely, of a recovery and renewal of life (Job 14:19; Ch1 29:15).

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle - That is, they are short and few. He does not here refer so much to the rapidity with which they were passing away as to the fact that they would soon be gone, and that he was likely to be cut off without being permitted to enjoy the blessings of a long life; compare the notes at Isa 38:12. The weaver's shuttle is the instrument by which the weaver inserts the filling in the woof. With us few things would furnish a more striking emblem of rapidity than the speed with which a weaver throws his shuttle from one side of the web to the other. It would seem that such was the fact among the ancients, though the precise manner in which they wove their cloth, is unknown. It was common to compare life with a web, which was filled up by the successive days. The ancient Classical writers spoke of it as a web woven by the Fates. We can all feel the force of the comparison used here by Job, that the days which we live fly swift away. How rapidly is one after another added to the web of life! How soon will the whole web be filled up, and life be closed! A few more shoots of the shuttle and all will be over, and our life will be cut off, as the weaver removes one web from the loom to make way for another. How important to improve the fleeting moments, and to live as if we were soon to see the rapid shuttle flying for the last time! And are spent without hope - Without hope of recovery, or of future happiness on earth. It does not mean that he had no hope of happiness in the world to come. But such were his trials here, and so entirely had his comforts been removed, that he had no prospect of again enjoying life.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle - That is, they are short and few. He does not here refer so much to the rapidity with which they were passing away as to the fact that they would soon be gone, and that he was likely to be cut off without being permitted to enjoy the blessings of a long life; compare the notes at Isa 38:12. The weaver's shuttle is the instrument by which the weaver inserts the filling in the woof. With us few things would furnish a more striking emblem of rapidity than the speed with which a weaver throws his shuttle from one side of the web to the other. It would seem that such was the fact among the ancients, though the precise manner in which they wove their cloth, is unknown. It was common to compare life with a web, which was filled up by the successive days. The ancient Classical writers spoke of it as a web woven by the Fates. We can all feel the force of the comparison used here by Job, that the days which we live fly swift away. How rapidly is one after another added to the web of life! How soon will the whole web be filled up, and life be closed! A few more shoots of the shuttle and all will be over, and our life will be cut off, as the weaver removes one web from the loom to make way for another. How important to improve the fleeting moments, and to live as if we were soon to see the rapid shuttle flying for the last time!

And are spent without hope - Without hope of recovery, or of future happiness on earth. It does not mean that he had no hope of happiness in the world to come. But such were his trials here, and so entirely had his comforts been removed, that he had no prospect of again enjoying life.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Swifter - The time of my life hastens to a period. Shuttle - Which passes in a moment from one end of the web to the other. Hope - Of enjoying any good day here.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]

Swifter - The time of my life hastens to a period. Shuttle - Which passes in a moment from one end of the web to the other. Hope - Of enjoying any good day here.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Swifter than a weaver's shuttle - The word ארג areg signifies rather the weaver than his shuttle. And it has been doubted whether any such instrument were in use in the days of Job. Dr. Russell, in his account of Aleppo, shows that though they wove many kinds of curious cloth, yet no shuttle was used, as they conducted every thread of the woof by their fingers. That some such instrument as the shuttle was in use from time immemorial, there can be no doubt: and it is certain that such an instrument must have been in the view of Job, without which the figure would lose its expression and force. In almost every nation the whole of human existence has been compared to a web; and the principle of life, through the continual succession of moments, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, to a thread woven through that web. Hence arose the fable of the Parcae or Fates, called also the Destinies or Fatal Sisters. They were the daughters of Erebus and Nox, darkness and night; and were three in number, and named Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Clotho held the distaff; Lachesis spun off the thread; and Atropos cut it off with her scissors, when it was determined that life should end. Job represents the thread of his life as being spun out with great rapidity and tenuity, and about to be cut off. And are spent without hope - Expectation of future good was at an end; hope of the alleviation of his miseries no longer existed. The hope of future good is the balm of life: where that is not, there is despair; where despair is, there is hell. The fable above mentioned is referred to by Virgil, Ecl. iv., ver. 46, but is there applied to time: - Talia Secla, suis dixerunt, currite, fusis Concordes stabili fatorum numine Parcae. "The Fates, when they this happy thread have spun Shall bless the sacred clue, and bid it smoothly run." Dryden. Isaiah uses the same figure, Isa 38:12 : - My life is cut off, as by the weaver: He will sever me from the loom. In the course of the day thou wilt finish my web. Lowth. Coverdale translates thus: My dayes passe over more spedely then a weaver can weave out his webbe and are gone or I am awarre. A fine example of this figure is found in the Teemour Nameh, which I shall give in Mr. Good's translation: - "Praise be to God, who hath woven the web of human affairs in the loom of his will and of his wisdom, and hath made waves of times and of seasons to flow from the fountain of his providence into the ocean of his power." The simile is fine, and elegantly expressed.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826

Swifter than a weaver's shuttle - The word ארג areg signifies rather the weaver than his shuttle. And it has been doubted whether any such instrument were in use in the days of Job. Dr. Russell, in his account of Aleppo, shows that though they wove many kinds of curious cloth, yet no shuttle was used, as they conducted every thread of the woof by their fingers. That some such instrument as the shuttle was in use from time immemorial, there can be no doubt: and it is certain that such an instrument must have been in the view of Job, without which the figure would lose its expression and force. In almost every nation the whole of human existence has been compared to a web; and the principle of life, through the continual succession of moments, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, to a thread woven through that web. Hence arose the fable of the Parcae or Fates, called also the Destinies or Fatal Sisters. They were the daughters of Erebus and Nox, darkness and night; and were three in number, and named Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Clotho held the distaff; Lachesis spun off the thread; and Atropos cut it off with her scissors, when it was determined that life should end. Job represents the thread of his life as being spun out with great rapidity and tenuity, and about to be cut off.

And are spent without hope - Expectation of future good was at an end; hope of the alleviation of his miseries no longer existed. The hope of future good is the balm of life: where that is not, there is despair; where despair is, there is hell. The fable above mentioned is referred to by Virgil, Ecl. iv., ver. 46, but is there applied to time: -

Talia Secla, suis dixerunt, currite, fusis

Concordes stabili fatorum numine Parcae.

"The Fates, when they this happy thread have spun

Shall bless the sacred clue, and bid it smoothly run."

Dryden.

Isaiah uses the same figure, Isa 38:12 : -

My life is cut off, as by the weaver:

He will sever me from the loom.

In the course of the day thou wilt finish my web.

Lowth.

Coverdale translates thus: My dayes passe over more spedely then a weaver can weave out his webbe and are gone or I am awarre.

A fine example of this figure is found in the Teemour Nameh, which I shall give in Mr. Good's translation: -

"Praise be to God, who hath woven the web of human affairs in the loom of his will and of his wisdom, and hath made waves of times and of seasons to flow from the fountain of his providence into the ocean of his power." The simile is fine, and elegantly expressed.

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