Job 19:17
in Job 19My breath is repulsive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own family.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
My breath is strange to my wife, And my supplication to the children of mine own mother.
KJV
My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.
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This verse in Job 19
Commentary
9 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
My breath is strange to my wife - Schultens renders this, “my breath is loathsome to my wife,” and so also Noyes.
This site's exposition
repulsive to my wife
on Job 19:17-19
The readings on "my own family" divide, whether the Hebrew means his dead children or the sons of his mother. Barnes and Gill set out both. The three friends before him are inside the sentence about those who have "turned against me", the charge of verse 2 restated as grief.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Then he enumerates the persons most closely joined to him, namely his wife and children. A wife usually especially enjoy the presence of her husband, unless she perhaps comes to detest him because of some serious corruption. He shows this saying, "my wife shuddered at …
My wife shuddered at my breath. What does the 'wife' of the Lord mean save the Synagogue, subject to Him in the Covenant of the Law with a carnal perception?
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Some read it, "Though I lamented, or bemoaned myself, for the children," that is, "for the death of the children of my own body," an affliction in which she was equally concerned with him.
A certain number for an uncertain. Strange - That you carry yourselves like strangers to me, and condemn me as if you had never known my integrity. Erred - If I have sinned, I myself suffer for my sins, and therefore deserve your pity rather than reproaches.
My breath is strange to my wife,....
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
strange--His breath by elephantiasis had become so strongly altered and offensive, that his wife turned away as estranged from him (Job 19:13; 17:1). children's . . . of mine own body--literally, "belly." But "loins" is what we should expect, not "belly" (womb), which applies to the woman.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
Though I entreated for the children’s sake of mine own body - This may imply no more than adjuring her by the tenderest ties, by their affectionate intercourse, and consequently by the children which had been the seals of their mutual affection, though these children were no more. But the mention of his children in this place may intimate that he had still some remaining; that there might have been young ones, who, not being of a proper age to attend the festival of their elder brothers and sisters, escaped that sad catastrophe. The Septuagint have, Προσεκαλουμην δε κολακευων υἰους παλλακιδων μου, “I affectionately entreated the children of my concubines.” But there is no ground in the Hebrew text for such a strange exceptionable rendering. Coverdale has, I am fayne to speake fayre to the children of myne own body.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
to the children of my body To those who I raised in my house as though they were my own children.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 7 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ר֭וּחִֽי | ruchi | breath my | H7307 → | 378 times |
| זָ֣רָה | zarah | it is loathsome | H2114 → | 77 times |
| לְאִשְׁתִּ֑י | leishti | to wife my | H802 → | 781 times |
| וְ֝חַנֹּתִ֗י | vechanoti | and I am repulsive | H2603 → | 78 times |
| לִבְנֵ֥י | livnei | to [the] sons of | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| בִטְנִֽי׃ | vitni | womb my | H990 → | 72 times |
ר֭וּחִֽיbreath my
ruchiH7307 →378 times
זָ֣רָהit is loathsome
zarahH2114 →77 times
לְאִשְׁתִּ֑יto wife my
leishtiH802 →781 times
וְ֝חַנֹּתִ֗יand I am repulsive
vechanotiH2603 →78 times
לִבְנֵ֥יto [the] sons of
livneiH1121 →4930 times
בִטְנִֽי׃womb my
vitniH990 →72 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 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
Job 17:1“My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me.
it leads to
- Isaiah 38:10–14
I said, “In the prime of my life I must go through the gates of Sheol and be deprived of the remainder of my years.”
- Psalms 88:3–5
For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
- Isaiah 57:16
For I will not accuse you forever, nor will I always be angry; for then the spirit of man would grow weak before Me, with the breath of those I have made.
- Job 17:13–14
If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,
- Job 6:11
What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What is my future, that I should be patient?
- Isaiah 38:10–14
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
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; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIV; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.