My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.
Parallel translations
- KJV My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.
- BSB My breath is repulsive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own family.
- NKJV My breath is offensive to my wife, And I am repulsive to the children of my own body.
- NASB “My breath is offensive to my wife, And I am loathsome to my own brothers.
- NLT My breath is repulsive to my wife. I am rejected by my own family.
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 says his very breath repels his wife and he is loathsome to his own family. His disease makes him physically repugnant to those closest to him.
Overview
Job's illness has made him offensive even to his wife and the children of his own household, severing the most intimate bonds. The reference to disease and rejection underscores the totality of his misery, body and relationships alike. His loathsome condition recalls the Suffering Servant from whom men hid their faces, yet who bore our griefs (Isaiah 53:3-4).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 2
- Job 2:9–10Then his wife said to him, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die.”
- Job 17:1“My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.
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 19:17 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.