Job 17:7

7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, And all my members are as 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 He that denounceth his friends for a prey, Even the eyes of his children shall fail.
6 But he hath made me a byword of the people; And they spit in my face.
7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, And all my members are as a shadow.
8 Upright men shall be astonished at this, And the innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
9 Yet shall the righteous hold on his way, And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.
The American Standard Version is in the public domain.