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.
Parallel translations
- WEB You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.
- BSB You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.
- NKJV You have shriveled me up, And it is a witness against me; My leanness rises up against me And bears witness to my face.
- NASB “And You have shriveled me up, It has become a witness; And my infirmity rises up against me, It testifies to my face.
- NLT As if to prove I have sinned, you’ve reduced me to skin and bones. My gaunt flesh testifies against me.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job's wasted, shriveled body is treated as if it testified against him. His very suffering is taken as evidence of guilt.
Overview
Job laments that his physical ruin and gauntness seem to stand up as witnesses accusing him before others. The friends read his affliction as proof of sin. This exposes the cruelty of judging the heart by outward circumstances, a misreading the whole book overturns and which finds its sharpest contradiction at the cross, where the sinless One suffered most.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Job 10:17Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.
- Job 19:20My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
- Ruth 1:21I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?
- Ps 109:24My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.
- Isa 10:16Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.
- Isa 24:16From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.
- Eph 5:27That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
- Ps 106:15And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 16:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.