Job 17:7
in Job 17My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, And all my members are as a shadow.
KJV
Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
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This verse in Job 17
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Mine eye is dim by reason of sorrow - Schultens supposes that this refers to his external appearance in general, as being worn down, exhausted, “defaced” by his many troubles; but it seems rather to mean that his eyes failed on account of weeping. And all my members are as a shadow - “I am a mere skeleton, I am exhausted and emaciated by my sufferings.” It is common to speak of persons who are emaciated by sickness or famine as mere shadows. Thus, Livy (L.
This site's exposition
He has made me a byword among the people
on Job 17:6-7
With "He has made me a byword among the people" Job moves from private grief to public shame, his name now a proverb for ruin. The lines "My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow" complete the wasting that mirrors his social fall.
This site's exposition
my whole body is but a shadow
Barnes and Clarke both trace the dim eyes to long weeping. Henry describes a man so worn by grief that his whole body is skin and bones. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the Hebrew for body means figures, set against a shadow, which has a shape and no substance.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church3 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XIII · Written before 604.
proposed
Ver. 7. Mine eye is dim, for indignation, and all my members are as it were brought to nothing. For 'the eye is dim for indignation,' when those very persons likewise, who in the Lord's Body, i.e. in the Church, are endued with the light of truth, whilst they see themselves too long despised and disdained by the wicked, are confounded in astonishment at the inscrutable judgment, and fail to fathom the secret of God; for what reason it is that the wicked are suffered to prevail against the innocence of the good?
However it is characteristic of the zeal of the just to be indignant when they see the righteousness of divine judgments perverted by false doctrine. So Job consequently shows the greatness of his zeal in two ways: first, by a kind of disturbance of the …
"I will rise in authority among peoples," because of the stupefaction for all that has happened to me. And the words, "I will be a veil on their faces," that is, whoever hears about my horrible misfortunes will veil his face. This is said as …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
He wept so much that he had almost lost his sight: My eye is dim by reason of sorrow, ch. xvi. The sorrow of the world thus works darkness and death. He grieved so much that he had fretted all the flesh away and become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones: " All my members are as a shadow.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow,....
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
De 34:7). members--literally, "figures"; all the individual members being peculiar forms of the body; opposed to "shadow," which looks like a figure without solidity.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Mine eye also is dim - Continual weeping impairs the sight; and indeed any affliction that debilitates the frame generally weakens the sight in the same proportion. All my members are as a shadow - Nothing is left but skin and bone. I am but the shadow of my former self.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery 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.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַתֵּ֣כַהּ | vatekhah | and it has grown dim | H3543 → | |
| מִכַּ֣עַשׂ | mikaas | from grief | H3708 → | 25 times |
| עֵינִ֑י | ʾeini | eye my | H5869 → | 887 times |
| וִֽיצֻרַ֖י | vitzurai | and members my | H3338 → | |
| כַּצֵּ֣ל | katzel | [are] like <the> shadow | H6738 → | 49 times |
| כֻּלָּֽם׃ | kulam | all of them | H3605 → | 5413 times |
וַתֵּ֣כַהּand it has grown dim
vatekhahH3543 →
מִכַּ֣עַשׂfrom grief
mikaasH3708 →25 times
עֵינִ֑יeye my
ʾeiniH5869 →887 times
וִֽיצֻרַ֖יand members my
vitzuraiH3338 →
כַּצֵּ֣ל[are] like <the> shadow
katzelH6738 →49 times
כֻּלָּֽם׃all of them
kulamH3605 →5413 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach 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
Ecclesiastes 6:12For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him…
it leads to
- Job 14:2
Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- James 4:14
You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
- Ecclesiastes 3:22
I have seen that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will come after him?
- Psalms 144:4
Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
- Lamentations 3:24–27
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
- Job 14:2
Through
Job 16:16My face is red with weeping, and deep shadows ring my eyes;
it leads to
- Lamentations 1:16
For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one nearby to comfort me, no one to revive my soul. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.
- Mark 14:34
Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch.”
- Psalms 102:3–5
For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers.
- Lamentations 1:16
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIII; Ishodad of Merv, COMMENTARY ON JOB 17:6; 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.