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15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin
    and have laid my strength in the dust.(A)
16 My face is red with weeping,
    and deep darkness is on my eyelids,
17 though there is no violence in my hands,
    and my prayer is pure.(B)

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15 I have sewed sackcloth on my skin,[a]
and buried[b] my horn[c] in the dust;
16 my face is reddened[d] because of weeping,[e]
and on my eyelids there is a deep darkness,[f]
17 although[g] there is no violence in my hands
and my prayer is pure.

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Footnotes

  1. Job 16:15 sn The language is hyperbolic; Job is saying that the sackcloth he has put on in his lamentable state is now stuck to his skin as if he had stitched it into the skin. It is now a habitual garment that he never takes off.
  2. Job 16:15 tn The Poel עֹלַלְתִּי (ʿolalti) from עָלַל (ʿalal, “to enter”) has here the meaning of “to thrust in.” The activity is the opposite of “raising high the horn,” a picture of dignity and victory.
  3. Job 16:15 tn There is no English term that captures exactly what “horn” is meant to do. Drawn from the animal world, the image was meant to convey strength and pride and victory. Some modern commentators have made other proposals for the line. Svi Rin suggested from Ugaritic that the verb be translated “lower” or “dip” (“Ugaritic—Old Testament Affinities,” BZ 7 [1963]: 22-33).
  4. Job 16:16 tn An intensive form, a Qetaltal form of the root חָמַר (khamar, “red”) is used here. This word has as probable derivatives חֹמֶר (khomer, “[red] clay”) and חֲמוֹר (khamor, “[red] ass”) and the like. Because of the weeping, his whole complexion has been reddened (the LXX reads “my belly”).
  5. Job 16:16 sn A. B. Davidson (Job, 122) notes that spontaneous and repeated weeping is one of the symptoms of elephantiasis.
  6. Job 16:16 sn See Job 3:5. Just as joy brings light and life to the eyes, sorrow and suffering bring darkness. The “eyelids” here would be synecdoche, reflecting the whole facial expression as sad and sullen.
  7. Job 16:17 tn For the use of the preposition עַל (ʿal) to introduce concessive clauses, see GKC 499 §160.c.