Job 7:19 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

How long will it be ere thou withdraw thy afflicting hand from me? Till I swallow down my spittle, i.e. for a little time; or that I may have a breathing time: a proverbial expression, like that Spanish proverb, I have not time or liberty to spit out my spittle. Or this expression may have respect to Job's distempered and calamitous condition, wherewith he was so overwhelmed, that he either had not strength, or could not take heed, to spit out his spittle, as he should have done, but swallowed it down, as sick and melancholy persons often do.