Lectionary Calendar
Monday, June 23rd, 2025
the Week of Proper 7 / Ordinary 12
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Read the Bible

Good News Translation

Job 7:4

When I lie down to sleep, the hours drag; I toss all night and long for dawn.

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.
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.
Bible in Basic English
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.
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 Human life is like forced army service, like a life of hard manual labor, 2 like a slave longing for cool shade; like a worker waiting to be paid. 3 Month after month I have nothing to live for; night after night brings me grief. 4 When I lie down to sleep, the hours drag; I toss all night and long for dawn. 5 My body is full of worms; it is covered with scabs; pus runs out of my sores. 6 My days pass by without hope, pass faster than a weaver's shuttle.

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
there were no plants on the earth and no seeds had sprouted, because he had not sent any rain, and there was no one to cultivate the land;
Genesis 6:3
Then the Lord said, "I will not allow people to live forever; they are mortal. From now on they will live no longer than 120 years."
Genesis 6:7
that he said, "I will wipe out these people I have created, and also the animals and the birds, because I am sorry that I made any of them."
Genesis 6:13
God said to Noah, "I have decided to put an end to all people. I will destroy them completely, because the world is full of their violent deeds.
Genesis 6:17
I am going to send a flood on the earth to destroy every living being. Everything on the earth will die,
Genesis 7:10
Seven days later the flood came.
Genesis 7:11
When Noah was six hundred years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month all the outlets of the vast body of water beneath the earth burst open, all the floodgates of the sky were opened,
Genesis 7:12
and rain fell on the earth for forty days and nights.
Genesis 7:17
The flood continued for forty days, and the water became deep enough for the boat to float.
Genesis 7:21
Every living being on the earth died—every bird, every animal, and every person.

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.


 
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