Job 7:5
in Job 7My flesh is clothed with worms and encrusted with dirt; my skin is cracked and festering.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; My skin closeth up, and breaketh out afresh.
KJV
My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.
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This verse in Job 7
Commentary
9 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
My flesh is clothed with worms - Job here undoubtedly refers to his diseased state, and this is one of the passages by which we may learn the nature of his complaint; compare the notes at Job 2:7. There is reference here to the worms which are produced in ulcers and in other forms of disease. Michaelis remarks that such effects are produced often in the elephantiasis. Bochart, Hieroz. P. II, Lib. IV. c. xxvi. pp. 619–621, has abundantly proved that such effects occur in disease, and has mentioned several instances where death ensued from this cause; compare Act 12:
This site's exposition
When I lie down I think
on Job 7:4-6
The night that should end labor only starts a new one for Job: "the night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn". His days are "swifter than a weaver’s shuttle" and "come to an end without hope," so speed itself becomes grief, a shorter sentence.
This site's exposition
My flesh is clothed with worms
The worms and the cracked, festering skin are the sores of chapter 2 at their worst. Barnes treats the verse as one of the plainest clues to his disease. Clarke takes the worms literally, bred in open sores.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book VIII · Written before 604.
proposed
My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust: my skin is dried up and shrunken. But we shall make out these words more exactly and more applicably, if we go back to the order of the foregoing interpretation. For by sleep the torpor of inaction, and by rising the exercising of action, is represented. And hence this same cause of these pains is brought in immediately afterwards, when it is said, My flesh is clothed with corruption and foulness of dust.
Blessed Job had demonstrated above that the consolation in which Eliphaz offered the promise of happiness in this earthly existence was unfitting. He first demonstrated this from the general condition of the life of man on the earth. Now he intends to demonstrate that the …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
His sores bred worms, the scabs were like clods of dust, and his skin was broken; so evil was the disease which cleaved fast to him. See what vile bodies we have, and what little reason we have to pamper them or be proud of them; they have in themselves the principles of their own corruption: as fond as we are of them now, the time may come when we may loathe them and long to get rid of them.
My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Isa 14:11). clods of dust--rather, a crust of dried filth and accumulated corruption (Job 2:7, 8). my skin is broken and . . . loathsome--rather, comes together so as to heal up, and again breaks out with running matter [GESENIUS]. More simply the Hebrew is, "My skin rests (for a time) and (again) melts away" (Ps 58:7).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
My flesh is clothed with worms - This is perhaps no figure, but is literally true: the miserably ulcerated state of his body, exposed to the open air, and in a state of great destitution, was favorable to those insects that sought such places in which to deposit their ova, which might have produced the animals in question. But the figure is too horrid to be farther illustrated. Clods of dust - I believe all the commentators have here missed the sense. I suppose Job to allude to those incrustations of indurated or dried pus, which are formed on the tops of pustules in a state of decay: such as the scales which fall from the pustules of the smallpox, when the patient becomes convalescent. Or, if Job’s disease was the elephantiasis, it may refer to the furfuraceous scales which are continually falling off the body in that disorder. It is well known, that in this disease the skin becomes very rigid, so as to crack across, especially at the different joints, out of which fissures a loathsome ichor is continually exuding. To something like this the words may refer, My Skin is Broken, and become Loathsome.
The words behind it
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לָ֘בַ֤שׁ | lavash | it is clothed | H3847 → | 110 times |
| בְּשָׂרִ֣י | besari | flesh my | H1320 → | 270 times |
| רִ֭מָּה | rimah | maggot[s] | H7415 → | 7 times |
| וְג֣וּשׁ | vegish | and clod[s] of | H1487 → | |
| עָפָ֑ר | ʾafar | dust | H6083 → | 110 times |
| עוֹרִ֥י | ori | skin my | H5785 → | 99 times |
| רָ֝גַ֗ע | raga' | it has hardened | H7280 → | |
| וַיִּמָּאֵֽס׃ | vaiyimaes | and it has run | H3988 → | 76 times |
לָ֘בַ֤שׁit is clothed
lavashH3847 →110 times
בְּשָׂרִ֣יflesh my
besariH1320 →270 times
רִ֭מָּהmaggot[s]
rimahH7415 →7 times
וְג֣וּשׁand clod[s] of
vegishH1487 →
עָפָ֑רdust
ʾafarH6083 →110 times
עוֹרִ֥יskin my
oriH5785 →99 times
רָ֝גַ֗עit has hardened
raga'H7280 →
וַיִּמָּאֵֽס׃and it has run
vaiyimaesH3988 →76 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
Job 19:26Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.
it leads to
- Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
- 1 John 3:2
Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as…
- Psalms 17:15
As for me, I will behold Your face in righteousness; when I awake, I will be satisfied in Your presence.
- Revelation 1:7
Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him—even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen.
- 1 Corinthians 13:12
Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
- Matthew 5:8
Through
Isaiah 1:6From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and festering sores neither cleansed nor bandaged nor soothed with oil.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 6:14
They dress the wound of My people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all.
- Jeremiah 33:6
Nevertheless, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal its people and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.
- Matthew 9:12
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
- Jeremiah 6:14
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Job
This page draws on 9 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 VIII; 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.