Job 33:21

21 Their bodies waste away to nothing; you can see all their bones;

Job 33:21 Meaning and Commentary

Job 33:21

His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen
All being gone, none left to be seen, nothing but skin and bones; and this partly through the vehemence of strong pain, and partly through the nausea of food; not being able to take anything for nourishment and the support of the fluids, and so quite emaciated:

and his bones [that] were not seen stick out:
which before were covered with flesh and fat, so that they could not be seen; but now the flesh and fat being wasted, they seem as if they rose up in an eminence, and stood out to be beheld; this was also Job's case, being reduced to a mere skeleton, ( Job 19:20 ) . Elihu, in this description of an afflicted man, seems to have Job chiefly in view, and by this would intimate to him that God had been, and was speaking to him by those afflictions, which he would do well to advert unto.

Job 33:21 In-Context

19 God corrects us by sending sickness and filling our bodies with pain.
20 Those who are sick lose their appetites, and even the finest food looks revolting.
21 Their bodies waste away to nothing; you can see all their bones;
22 they are about to go to the world of the dead.
23 Perhaps an angel may come to their aid - one of God's thousands of angels, who remind us of our duty.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.