And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip me.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold on me.
- KJV And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
- NKJV “Andnow my soul is poured out because of my plight; The days of affliction take hold of me.
- NASB ¶“And now my soul is poured out within me; Days of misery have seized me.
- NLT “And now my life seeps away. Depression haunts my days.
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 life is draining away and days of affliction grip him. It expresses deep emotional and physical exhaustion under prolonged suffering.
Overview
With the phrase that his soul is poured out, Job describes himself as utterly spent, his inner life ebbing away while affliction holds him fast. This echoes the language of the psalms of lament, where the soul is poured out before God in distress. The same words of being poured out are taken up by Christ in Gethsemane and the cross, where the truly innocent Sufferer endured affliction for our sake.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Ps 42:4These things come to mind as I pour out my soul: how I walked with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God with shouts of joy and praise.
- Ps 22:14I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me.
- Ps 40:12For evils without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, so that I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed within me.
- Isa 53:12Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He has poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
- Job 3:24I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.
- 1 Sam 1:15“No, my lord,” Hannah replied. “I am a woman oppressed in spirit. I have not had any wine or strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the LORD.
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 30:16 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.