By great force is my garment disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
Parallel translations
- KJV By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
- BSB With great force He grasps my garment; He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.
- NKJV By great force my garment is disfigured; It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
- NASB “By a great force my garment is distorted; It ties me up like the collar of my coat.
- NLT With a strong hand, God grabs my shirt. He grips me by the collar of my coat.
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 disease so disfigures him that his clothing clings and binds him like a tight collar. It pictures how illness has distorted his whole body.
Overview
The verse is difficult in the Hebrew, but the sense is that Job's affliction grips him as tightly as a garment that clings and chokes, marring his appearance. Some take it as the disease itself binding him like a constricting robe. Either way it portrays the all-encompassing nature of his suffering, reminding us how thoroughly sin's effects, including disease and death, mar the body that awaits resurrection in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Job 19:20My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
- Job 7:5My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
- Job 2:7So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.
- Isa 1:5–6Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
- Ps 38:5My wounds are loathsome and corrupt, because of my foolishness.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 30:18 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.