Job 17:7

7 My grief has almost made me blind; my arms and legs are as thin as shadows.

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 In the old proverb someone betrays his friends for money, and his children suffer for it.
6 And now people use this proverb against me; they come and spit in my face.
7 My grief has almost made me blind; my arms and legs are as thin as shadows.
8 Those who claim to be honest are shocked, and they all condemn me as godless.
9 Those who claim to be respectable are more and more convinced they are right.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.