You have shriveled me up, And it is a witness against me; My leanness rises up against me And bears 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.
- 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.
- BSB You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.
- 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 10:17You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.
- Job 19:20My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
- Ruth 1:21I went out full, and Yahweh has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since Yahweh has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”
- Ps 109:24My knees are weak through fasting. My body is thin and lacks fat.
- Isa 10:16Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning of fire.
- Isa 24:16From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous! But I said, “I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!” The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously.
- Eph 5:27that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without defect.
- Ps 106:15He 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
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