Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, April 11th, 2026
Saturday in Easter Week
Attention!
For 10¢ a day you can enjoy StudyLight.org ads
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

Bible in Basic English

Job 7:4

When I go to my bed, I say, When will it be time to get up? but the night is long, and I am turning from side to side till morning light.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Thompson Chain Reference - Insomnia;   Sleep-Wakefulness;   Sleeplessness;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Night;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Leper;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Dawn;   Day and Night;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Meïr B. David;   Optimism and Pessimism;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for January 12;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
When I lie down I think,“When will I get up?”But the evening drags on endlessly,and I toss and turn until dawn.
Hebrew Names Version
When I lie down, I say, 'When shall I arise, and the night be gone?' I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.
King James Version
When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.
English Standard Version
When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?' But the night is long, and I am full of tossing till the dawn.
New Century Version
When I lie down, I think, ‘How long until I get up?' The night is long, and I toss until dawn.
New English Translation
If I lie down, I say, ‘When will I arise?', and the night stretches on and I toss and turn restlessly until the day dawns.
Amplified Bible
"When I lie down I say, 'When shall I arise [and the night be gone]?' But the night continues, And I am continually tossing until the dawning of day.
New American Standard Bible
"When I lie down, I say, 'When shall I arise?' But the night continues, And I am continually tossing until dawn.
World English Bible
When I lie down, I say, 'When shall I arise, and the night be gone?' I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.
Geneva Bible (1587)
If I layed me downe, I sayde, When shall I arise? and measuring the euening I am euen full with tossing to and fro vnto the dawning of the day.
Legacy Standard Bible
If I lie down I say,‘When shall I arise?'But the twilight continues,And I am saturated with tossing until dawn.
Berean Standard Bible
When I lie down I think: 'When will I get up?' But the night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.
Contemporary English Version
I pray for night to end, but it stretches out while I toss and turn.
Complete Jewish Bible
When I lie down, I ask, ‘When can I get up?' But the night is long, and I keep tossing to and fro until daybreak.
Darby Translation
If I lie down, I say, When shall I rise up, and the darkness be gone? and I am full of tossings until the dawn.
Easy-to-Read Version
When I lie down, I think, ‘How long before it's time to get up?' The night drags on. I toss and turn until the sun comes up.
George Lamsa Translation
When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise? and the night seems long; when I go to rest, I toss about till the dawning of the day.
Good News Translation
When I lie down to sleep, the hours drag; I toss all night and long for dawn.
Lexham English Bible
When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I rise?' But the night is long, and I have my fill of tossing until dawn.
Literal Translation
When I lie down, I say, When shall I rise up? But the night is long, and I am full of tossings, until the twilight of the dawn.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
When I layed me downe to slepe, I sayde: O when shal I ryse? Agayne, I longed sore for the night. Thus am I full off sorowe, till it be darcke.
American Standard Version
When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
When I layde me downe to sleepe, I sayde, O when shall I arise? and measuring the euening, I am euen full with tossing to and fro vnto the dawning of the day.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
When I lie down, I say: 'When shall I arise?' But the night is long,
King James Version (1611)
When I lie downe, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro, vnto the dawning of the day.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Whenever I lie down, I say, When will it be day? and whenever I rise up, again I say when will it be evening? and I am full of pains from evening to morning.
English Revised Version
When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise? but the night is long; and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
If Y schal slepe, Y schal seie, Whanne schal Y rise? and eft Y schal abide the euentid, and Y schal be fillid with sorewis `til to derknessis.
Update Bible Version
When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? And I am full of tossings to and fro to the dawning of the day.
Webster's Bible Translation
When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro to the dawning of the day.
New King James Version
When I lie down, I say, "When shall I arise, And the night be ended?' For I have had my fill of tossing till dawn.
New Living Translation
Lying in bed, I think, ‘When will it be morning?' But the night drags on, and I toss till dawn.
New Life Bible
When I lie down I say, ‘When will I get up?' But the night is long, and I am always turning from side to side until morning.
New Revised Standard
When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I rise?' But the night is long, and I am full of tossing until dawn.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
As soon as I lie down, I say, When shall I arise? yet he lengtheneth out the evening, and I am wearied with tossings until the breeze of twilight.
Douay-Rheims Bible
If I lie down to sleep, I shall say: When shall I rise? and again, I shall look for the evening, and shall be filled with sorrows even till darkness.
Revised Standard Version
When I lie down I say, 'When shall I arise?' But the night is long, and I am full of tossing till the dawn.
Young's Literal Translation
If I lay down then I said, `When do I rise!' And evening hath been measured, And I have been full of tossings till dawn.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"When I lie down I say, 'When shall I arise?' But the night continues, And I am continually tossing until dawn.

Contextual Overview

1 Has not man his ordered time of trouble on the earth? and are not his days like the days of a servant working for payment? 2 As a servant desiring the shades of evening, and a workman looking for his payment: 3 So I have for my heritage months of pain to no purpose, and nights of weariness are given to me. 4 When I go to my bed, I say, When will it be time to get up? but the night is long, and I am turning from side to side till morning light. 5 My flesh is covered with worms and dust; my skin gets hard and then is cracked again. 6 My days go quicker than the cloth-worker's thread, and come to an end without hope.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

When: Job 7:13, Job 7:14, Job 17:12, Job 30:17, Deuteronomy 28:67, Psalms 6:6, Psalms 77:4, Psalms 130:6

night: etc. Heb. evening be measured

tossings: Psalms 109:23, Isaiah 54:11

Reciprocal: Job 33:19 - pain Psalms 73:14 - For all

Cross-References

Genesis 2:5
In the day when the Lord God made earth and heaven there were no plants of the field on the earth, and no grass had come up: for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to do work on the land.
Genesis 6:3
And the Lord said, My spirit will not be in man for ever, for he is only flesh; so the days of his life will be a hundred and twenty years.
Genesis 6:7
And the Lord said, I will take away man, whom I have made, from the face of the earth, even man and beast and that which goes on the earth and every bird of the air; for I have sorrow for having made them.
Genesis 6:13
And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come; the earth is full of their violent doings, and now I will put an end to them with the earth.
Genesis 6:17
For truly, I will send a great flow of waters over the earth, for the destruction from under the heaven of all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything on the earth will come to an end.
Genesis 7:10
And after the seven days, the waters came over all the earth.
Genesis 7:11
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the great deep came bursting through, and the windows of heaven were open;
Genesis 7:12
And rain came down on the earth for forty days and forty nights.
Genesis 7:17
And for forty days the waters were over all the earth; and the waters were increased so that the ark was lifted up high over the earth.
Genesis 7:21
And destruction came on every living thing moving on the earth, birds and cattle and beasts and everything which went on the earth, and every man.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise,.... Or, "then I say", c. t that is, as soon as he laid himself down in his bed, and endeavoured to compose himself to sleep, in order to get rest and refreshment; then he said within himself, or with an articulate voice, to those about him, that sat up with him; oh that it was time to rise; when will it be morning, that I may rise from my bed, which is of no manner of service to me, but rather increases weariness?

and the night be gone? and the day dawn and break; or "night" or "evening be measured", as in the margin, or "measures itself" u; or that "he", that is, God, or "it", my heart, "measures the evening" w, or "night"; lengthens it out to its full time: to a discomposed person, that cannot sleep, the night seems long; such count every hour, tell every clock that strikes, and long to see peep of day; these are they that watch for the morning, Psalms 130:6;

and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day; or, "unto the twilight"; the morning twilight; though some understand it of the twilight or evening of the next day, see 1 Samuel 30:17; and interpret "the tossings to and fro" of the toils and labours of the day, and of the sorrows and miseries of it, lengthened out to the eve of the following day; but rather they are to be understood either of the tosses of his mind, his distressed and perplexed thoughts within him he was full of; or of the tosses of his body, his frequent turning himself upon his bed, from side to side, to ease him; and with these he was "filled", or "satiated" x; he had enough and too much of them; he was glutted and sated with them, as a man is with overmuch eating, as the word signifies.

t ואמרתי "tum dixi", Beza, Piscator, Mercerus. u So Saadiah Gaon. w ומדד ערב "tum admensus est versperam", Schmidt; "extendit", Schultens; "et cor", Mercerus; so Aben Ezra, Ben Gersom, and Bar Tzemach. x שבעתי "satior", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Schultens.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

When I lie down - I find no comfort and no rest on my bed. My nights are long, and I am impatient to have them passed, and equally so is it with the day. This is a description which all can understand who have been laid on a bed of pain.

And the night be gone - Margin, evening be measured. Herder renders this, “the night is irksome to me.” The word rendered night (ערב ereb) properly means the early part of the night, until it is succeeded by the dawn. Thus, in Genesis 1:5,” And the evening (ערב ereb) and the morning were the first day.” Here it means the portion of the night which is before the dawning of the aurora - the night. The word rendered “be gone” and in the margin “be measured” ( מדּד mı̂ddad), has been variously rendered. The verb מדד mâdad means to stretch, to extend, to measure; and, according to Gesenius, the form of the word used here is a noun meaning flight, and the sense is, “when shall be the flight of the night?” He derives it from נדד nâdad to move, to flee, to flee away. So Rosenmuller explains it. The expression is poetic, meaning, when shall the night be gone?

I am full of tossings to and fro - (נדדים nâdûdı̂ym). A word from the same root. It means uneasy motions, restlessness. He found no quiet repose on his bed.

Unto the dawning - נשׁף nesheph, from נשׁף nâshaph, to breathe; hence, the evening twilight because the breezes blow, or seem to breathe, and then it means also the morning twilight, the dawn. Dr. Stock renders it, “until the morning breeze.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 7:4. When I lie down — I have so little rest, that when I do lie down I long for the return of the light, that I may rise. Nothing can better depict the state of a man under continual afflictions, which afford him no respite, his days and his nights being spent in constant anguish, utterly unable to be in any one posture, so that he is continually changing his position in his bed, finding ease nowhere: thus, as himself expresses it, he is full of tossings.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile