Job 17:7

7 My eyes have grown dim with grief; my whole frame is but a shadow.

Job 17:7 in Other Translations

KJV
7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
ESV
7 My eye has grown dim from vexation, and all my members are like a shadow.
NLT
7 My eyes are swollen with weeping, and I am but a shadow of my former self.
MSG
7 I can hardly see from crying so much; I'm nothing but skin and bones.
CSB
7 My eyes have grown dim from grief, and my whole body has become but a shadow.

Job 17:7 Meaning and Commentary

Job 17:7

Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow
Through excessive weeping, and the abundance of tears he shed, so that he had almost lost his eyesight, or however it was greatly weakened and impaired by that means, which is often the case, see ( Psalms 6:7 ) ( 31:9 ) ;

and all my members [are] as a shadow;
his flesh was consumed off his bones, there were nothing left scarcely but skin and bone; he was a mere anatomy, and as thin as a lath, as we commonly say of a man that is quite worn away, as it were; is a walking shadow, has scarce any substance in him, but is the mere shadow of a man; the Targum interprets it of his form, splendour, and countenance, which were like a shadow; some interpret it "my thoughts" F20, and understand it of the formations of his mind, and not of his body, which were shadows, empty, fleeting, and having no consistence in them through that sorrow that possessed him.


FOOTNOTES:

F20 (yruy) "cogitationes meae", Pagninus, Bolducius, Codurcus, so Ben Gersom.

Job 17:7 In-Context

5 If anyone denounces their friends for reward, the eyes of their children will fail.
6 “God has made me a byword to everyone, a man in whose face people spit.
7 My eyes have grown dim with grief; my whole frame is but a shadow.
8 The upright are appalled at this; the innocent are aroused against the ungodly.
9 Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways, and those with clean hands will grow stronger.

Cross References 2

  • 1. S Job 16:8
  • 2. S Job 2:12; S Job 16:16
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