Skip to content
mannafest.faith

Job 16:8

in Job 16

You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And thou hast laid fast hold on me, which is a witness against me: And my leanness riseth up against me, It testifieth to my face.

KJV

And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.

This verse in Job 16

Commentary

11 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Thou hast filled me with wrinkles - If Job’s disease were the elephantiasis, in which the whole skin is wrinkled as the skin of the elephant, from which this species of leprosy has taken its name, these words would apply most forcibly to it; but the whole passage, through its obscurity, has been variously rendered. Calmet unites it with the preceding, and Houbigant is not very different.

This site's exposition

Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved

on Job 16:6-8

Speech brings no relief and silence brings none: "if I hold back, how will it go away". His body is the witness, "my frailty rises up and testifies against me". Barnes notes that the friends took wasting illness as proof of hidden sin, which chapter 1 denies.

This site's exposition

my frailty rises up and testifies against me

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown say the friends took his wasted body as proof of guilt. They trace the Hebrew verb for bound to a root meaning to draw together. Henry adds that the same witness could show his complaint has cause.

The record, by era

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Gregory the Dialogist

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIII · Written before 604.

proposed

Ver. 8. But now my grief has oppressed me, and my limbs are brought to nought. Holy Church is oppressed by her grief, when she beholds the wicked grow to a height in their wickedness; and whereas while the wicked increase, the weak too that are in her are set on to follow the bents of wickedness, it is rightly added, And all my limbs are brought to nought.

A commentator

Thomas Aquinas

Commentary on Job · Written before 1274.

proposed

The dissipation of my members not only cause me sensible pain, but it also bears witness against me. For when the friends of Job saw that he was so covered with ulcers, from this they charged that he had sinned grievously because they thought this …

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

And thou hast filled me with wrinkles,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Better lay the horn in the dust than lift it up in contradiction to the designs of Providence and have it broken at last. Eliphaz had represented Job as high and haughty, and unhumbled under his affliction. "No," says Job, "I know better things; the dust is now the fittest place for me." 3.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

He still holds fast his integrity, concerning which he appeals to God's righteous judgment from the unrighteous censures of his friends,
3 more voices on this verse

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

These are called witnesses against him, witnesses of God's displeasure against him, and such witnesses as his friends produced against him to prove him a wicked man. Or, "They are witnesses for me, that my complaint is not causeless," or "witnesses to me, that I am a dying man, and must be gone shortly." III.

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

But another "witness" arises against him, namely, his "leanness" or wretched state of body, construed by his friends into a proof of his guilt. The radical meaning of the Hebrew is "to draw together," whence flow the double meaning "to bind" or "fetter," and in Syriac, "to wrinkle." leanness--meaning also "lie"; implying it was a "false witness."
And thou hast filled me with wrinkles - Noyes renders this, “and thou hast seized hold of me, which is a witness against me.” Wemyss, “since thou hast bound me with chains, witnesses come forward.” Good, “and hast cut off myself from becoming a witness.” Luther, “he has made me “kuntzlich” (skillfully, artificially, cunningly,) and bears witness against me.” Jerome, “my wrinkles bear witness against me.” Septuagint, “my lie has become a witness, and is risen up against me.” From this variety of explanations, it will be seen that this passage is not of easy and obvious construction. The Hebrew word which is here used and rendered, “thou hast filled me with wrinkles” (תקמטני tı̂qâmaṭēnı̂y), from קמט qâmaṭ - occurs only in one other place in the Bible; Job 22:16. It is there in the “Pual” form, and rendered “were cut down.” According to Gesenius, it means, to lay fast hold of, to seize with the hands, and answers to the Arabic “to bind.” The word in Chaldee (קמט qâmaṭ) means to wrinkle, or collect in wrinkles; and is applied to anything that is “contracted,” or rough. It is applied in the form קימט qâymaṭ to the pupil of the eye as being “contracted,” as in the declaration in Derek ‘Erets, c. 5, quoted by Castell. “The world is like the eye; where the ocean that surrounds the world is white; the world itself is black; the pupil is Jerusalem, and the image in the pupil is the sanctuary.” Probably the true notion of the word is to be found in the Arabic. According to Castell, this means, to tie together the four feet of a sheep or lamb, in order that it might be slain; to bind an infant in swaddling clothes before it is laid in a cradle; to collect camels into a group or herd; and hence, the noun is used to denote a cord or rope twisted of wool, or of leaves of the palm, or the bandages by which an infant is bound. […]

The words behind it

8 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַֽ֭תִּקְמְטֵנִיand you have seized me

    vatikmeteniH7059 →

  • לְעֵ֣ד<into> a witness

    leedH5707 →70 times

  • הָיָ֑הit has become

    hayahH1961 →3559 times

  • וַיָּ֥קָםand it has risen up

    vaiyakomH6965 →628 times

  • בִּ֥יon me

    bi

  • כַ֝חֲשִׁ֗יleanness my

    khachashiH3585 →

  • בְּפָנַ֥יin face my

    befanaiH6440 →2123 times

  • יַעֲנֶֽה׃it testifies

    yaanehH6030 →331 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Psalms 109:24

    My knees are weak from fasting, and my body grows lean and gaunt.

    it leads to

    • Psalms 32:3–4

      When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Hebrews 12:12

      Therefore strengthen your limp hands and weak knees.

    • Matthew 4:2

      After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.

  • Through

    Ruth 1:21

    I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? After all, the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me.”

    it leads to

    • Job 1:21

      saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.”

    • 1 Samuel 2:7–8

      The LORD sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts.

  • Through

    Job 19:20

    My skin and flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

    it leads to

    • Psalms 102:5

      Through my loud groaning my flesh clings to my bones.

  • Through

    Job 10:17

    You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.

    it leads to

    • Ruth 1:21

      I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? After all, the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me.”

  • Through

    Psalms 106:15

    So He granted their request, but sent a wasting disease upon them.

    it leads to

    • Numbers 11:31–34

      Now a wind sent by the LORD came up, drove in quail from the sea, and brought them near the camp, about two cubits above the surface of the ground, for a day’s journey…

About Job

Job Hears of His Misfortunes, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Job Hears of His Misfortunes, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.