Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
Parallel translations
- WEB My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.
- BSB My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow.
- NKJV My eye has also grown dim because of sorrow, And all my members are like shadows.
- NASB “My eye has also become inexpressive because of grief, And all my body parts are like a shadow.
- NLT My eyes are swollen with weeping, and I am but a shadow of my former self.
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 eyes are dim with grief and his whole frame is wasted to a shadow. Sorrow has consumed his body.
Overview
Job describes his sight failing from continual sorrow and his limbs reduced to mere shadows. The picture is of a man hollowed out by prolonged suffering. Such depictions of grief's toll are honest before God, who does not despise the weak and wasted but draws near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Job 16:16My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
- Ps 6:7Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.
- Ps 31:9–10Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.
- Eccl 6:12For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?
- Job 16:8And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.
- Ps 109:23I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.
- Lam 5:17For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 17:7 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.