Limitless Word
“And now my life seeps away. Depression haunts my days.
Job 30:16 · New Living Translation
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.
  • BSB And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip 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.

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 I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day.
  • Ps 22:14I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.
  • Ps 40:12For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart has failed me.
  • Isa 53:12Therefore will I give him a portion with the great, and he will divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
  • Job 3:24For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.
  • 1 Sam 1:15Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have not been drinking wine or strong drink, but I poured out my soul before Yahweh.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 30:16YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 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.