Job 7:2

2. Earnestly desireth the shadow Rather, longs for, שׁא , a word that in several oriental languages expresses strongest desire. See chap. Job 5:5. Kitto is rather disposed to think that the shadow means protection against the fierce rays of the sun to which the servant ( עבד , slave) is exposed. Dr. A. Clarke more properly interprets it of the night, and cites Virgil: “The morning had removed the humid shadow from the world.” Servius observes, “It makes no difference whether he says shadow or night, for night is the shadow of the earth.” The most ancient artificial mode of marking the progress of the day was by the shadow caused by the sun, which, falling from a pillar upon some graduated surface, by its length served to denote the hour of the day. (2 Kings 20:11.) The people of the East to the present day measure time by the length of their own shadow. “A person wishing to leave his toil says, How long my shadow is coming.” Roberts.

His work Wages. The word in the original פעל means both work and wages. As the two are closely identified in the Hebrew, so they seem to be in the thought before us. The hireling hopes for “expects” his wages; and shall man, the hireling of God, be of less consequence than the hireling of man? Shall he be “made to inherit” months of wretchedness and nights of trouble, and receive no compensation? Is there not here a reference to another life, where Job, too, should receive recompense? If not, the sense is incomplete this second clause is superfluous; the first would have sufficed to introduce the comparison of Job 7:3.