Job 17:7

My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Job speaks to his community and God while experiencing rapid physical decline and public humiliation. He delivers this statement immediately after being made a byword and spat upon.

The words — תֵּכַהּ (Te.khah) = it has grown dim and כּוּלָּם (ku.La/m) = all of them. The text states his eyes dim from grief and his entire body becomes a shadow.

The thread — This physical deterioration mirrors Job 16:16, where deep shadows ring his eyes, and Psalms 6:7, where eyes fail from grief. Psalms 31:9 extends the pattern by linking failing eyes to distress in the soul and body.

Why it lands — The passage records bodily decay as a direct result of prolonged suffering before drawing any theological conclusion. It demands that a reader acknowledge physical ruin as a legitimate data point in the experience of righteous affliction.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

וַתֵּ֣כַהּva./Te.khahand/ it has grown dim מִכַּ֣עַשׂmi./Ka.'asfrom/ grief עֵינִ֑י'ei.N/ieye/ my וִֽיצֻרַ֖יvi./tzu.Ra/iand/ members/ my כַּצֵּ֣לka./Tzel[are] like <the>/ shadow כֻּלָּֽם׃ku.La/mall of/ them

King James Version

Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.

Cross-references

Job 16:16 My face is red with weeping, and deep shadows ring my eyes;
Psalms 6:7 My eyes fail from grief; they grow dim because of all my foes.
Psalms 31:9 Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes fail from sorrow, my soul and body as well.
Job 16:8 You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.
Psalms 109:23 I am fading away like a lengthening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.
Ecclesiastes 6:12 For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?
Lamentations 5:17 Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim—