What is the context?
Job wishes that God would end his life and suffering. He still takes comfort in not having denied the Holy One’s words, but sees no strength for the future being urged upon him.
The questions about stone and bronze emphasize his human limits. He cannot indefinitely endure as though his body and spirit were made of something unbreakable.
The wish is a voice of exhaustion within the dialogue, not an instruction to others to seek death. It also challenges advice that assumes the sufferer has unlimited capacity to wait without support.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley reads Job as unable to see the restoration Eliphaz has promised, while still maintaining his allegiance to God. The account gives his longing to have God end the pain without narrating an act by which he ends his own life. His words need to be heard as lament rather than converted into a plan for others.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.
Where can I study this further?
No deeper study linked yet.