So am I made to possess months of vanity. "Months of vanity" are "months of which he can make no use "—"months which are no good to him." It has been concluded from this theft some considerable time had elapsed since Job was stricken by his disease.
But he is perhaps looking to the future as much as to the past, anticipating a long, lingering illness. Elephantiasis is a disease which often lasts for years. And wearisome nights are appointed to me.
To one stretched on a bed of sickness, the night is always more wearisome than the day. It has no changes, nothing to mark its flight. It seems almost interminable. In elephantiasis, however, it is a special feature of the disease that the sufferings of the patient are greatest at night.
"In elephantiasis ansesthetica" says Dr. Erasmus Wilson, "a sense of dulness and heat pervades the surface, and there are sensations of tingling and prickling, and of burning heat. While the integument is insensible, there are deep-seated burning pains, sometimes of a bone or joint, sometimes of the vertebral column.
These pains are greatest at night; they prevent sleep, and give rise to restlessness and frightful dreams".