What Does Job 7:15 Mean?

Job reaches the depths of despair: 'My soul chooseth strangling' (cheneq, חֶנֶק) 'and death rather than my life' (atsamot, עֲצָמוֹת, literally 'my bones' or 'my frame'). The verb 'chooseth' (bachar, בָּחַר) is the same used for God's election—Job 'elects' death over continued existence. This isn't mere death wish but considered preference for non-existence over unbearable suffering.

The honesty is shocking yet biblical. Scripture doesn't sanitize the depths of righteous suffering. Job joins other saints who wished for death: Moses (Numbers 11:15), Elijah (1 Kings 19:4), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:14-18), Jonah (Jonah 4:3). God doesn't condemn their honesty but meets them in their despair. The Reformed tradition distinguishes between expressing death wishes in prayer versus pursuing suicide—one is honest lament, the other is sinful presumption.

Job's death wish anticipates the gospel paradox: we must die to self to truly live (Galatians 2:20). Job wants literal death; Christ calls us to death of the old man and resurrection of the new. Job's words, though spoken in ignorance of resurrection hope, point toward Christian mortification—choosing death to sin rather than continuation in it.