My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
Parallel translations
- KJV My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.
- BSB My flesh is clothed with worms and encrusted with dirt; my skin is cracked and festering.
- NKJV My flesh is caked with worms and dust, My skin is cracked and breaks out afresh.
- NASB “My flesh is clothed with maggots and a crust of dirt, My skin hardens and oozes.
- NLT My body is covered with maggots and scabs. My skin breaks open, oozing with pus.
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 graphically describes his diseased body, covered with worms and crusted skin that cracks and oozes. His physical torment is severe and degrading.
Overview
This vivid, unsettling description reflects the bodily horror of Job's affliction following Satan's attack on his health (Job 2:7). The decay of his flesh mirrors the corruption of death encroaching while he still lives. It underscores the depth of suffering a blameless man endures, setting the stage for the larger question of God's justice.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Job 17:14If I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father;’ to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘my sister;’
- Isa 14:11Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.
- Job 2:7–8So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.
- Ps 38:5–7My wounds are loathsome and corrupt, because of my foolishness.
- Isa 1:6From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it: wounds, welts, and open sores. They haven’t been closed, neither bandaged, neither soothed with oil.
- Job 9:31yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes shall abhor me.
- Job 30:18–19By great force is my garment disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
- Isa 66:24“They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”
- Ezek 20:43There you shall remember your ways, and all your doings, in which you have polluted yourselves; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have committed.
- Job 24:20The womb shall forget him. The worm shall feed sweetly on him. He shall be no more remembered. Unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.
- Job 19:26After my skin is destroyed, then in my flesh shall I see God,
- Acts 12:23Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 7:5 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.