Job 7 · Verse 5

Job 7:5

My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.
Job 7:5, King James Version

Job 7:5 in other translations

BSBMy flesh is clothed with worms and encrusted with dirt; my skin is cracked and festering.
WEBMy flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
ASVMy flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; My skin closeth up, and breaketh out afresh.
YLTClothed hath been my flesh with worms, And a clod of dust, My skin hath been shrivelled and is loathsome,
DARBYMy flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and suppurates.
BBEMy flesh is covered with worms and dust; my skin gets hard and then is cracked again.
WebsterMy flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken and become lothsome.

What does Job 7:5 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
5. In elephantiasis maggots are bred in the sores (Ac 12:23; Is 14:11). clods of dust--rather, a crust of dried filth and accumulated corruption (Job 2:7, 8). my skin is broken and ... loathsome--rather, comes together so as to heal up, and again breaks out with running matter [Gesenius]. More simply the Hebrew is, "My skin rests (for a time) and (again) melts away" (Psa 58:7).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 5 My flesh is clothed with worms - This is perhaps no figure, but is literally true: the miserably ulcerated state of his body, exposed to the open air, and in a state of great destitution, was favorable to those insects that sought such places in which to deposit their ova, which might have produced the animals in question. But the figure is too horrid to be farther illustrated. Clods of dust - I believe all the commentators have here missed the sense. I suppose Job to allude to those incrustations of indurated or dried pus, which are formed on the tops of pustules in a state of decay: such as the scales which fall from the pustules of the smallpox, when the patient becomes convalescent. Or, if Job's disease was the elephantiasis, it may refer to the furfuraceous scales which are continually falling off the body in that disorder. It is well known, that in this disease the skin becomes very rigid, so as to crack across, especially at the different joints, out of which fissures a loathsome ichor is continually exuding. To something like this the words may refer, My Skin is Broken, and become Loathsome.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Job 7:1-6

Job here excuses what he could not justify, his desire of death. Observe man's present place: he is upon earth. He is yet on earth, not in hell. Is there not a time appointed for his abode here? yes, certainly, and the appointment is made by Him who made us and sent us here. During that, man's life is a warfare, and as day-labourers, who have the work of the day to do in its day, and must make up their account at…

Read the full comment on Job 7:1-6 →

Job 7:5 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

לָ֘בַ֤שׁla.Vashit is clothedH3847
בְּשָׂרִ֣יbe.sa.Riflesh myH1320
רִ֭מָּהRi.mahmaggot[s]H7415
וְג֣וּשׁve.gishand clod[s] ofH1487
עָפָ֑ר'a.FardustH6083
עוֹרִ֥יo.Riskin myH5785
רָ֝גַ֗עra.Ga'it has hardenedH7280
וַיִּמָּאֵֽס\׃vai.yi.ma.'Esand it has runH3988

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Job 7:5

  • Isaiah 14:11

    Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

  • Job 17:14

    I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

  • Job 2:7-8

    So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.

  • Isaiah 1:6

    From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

  • Acts 12:23

    And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.

  • Isaiah 66:24

    And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.

  • Job 30:18-19

    By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat. He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.

  • Psalms 38:5-7

    My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.

  • Job 24:20

    The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.

  • Job 9:31

    Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.

  • Job 19:26

    And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

  • Ezekiel 20:43

    And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
flesh.
2:7,8; 17:14; 19:26; 24:20; 30:18,19; Ps 38:5-7; Isa 1:6; 14:11
Ac 12:23
loathsome.
9:31; Isa 66:24; Eze 20:43

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Job 7:4

    When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.

  • Job 7:5

    My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.

  • Job 7:6

    My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

Read all of Job 7

Job 7:5 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Mi carne está vestida de gusanos, y de costras de polvo; mi piel hendida y abominable.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Ma chair est couverte de vers et de croûtes de terre, ma peau se retire et suppure.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Mein Fleisch ist bekleidet mit Gewürm und Erdkrusten, meine Haut zieht sich zusammen und eitert.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Induta est caro mea putredine, et sordibus pulveris cutis mea aruit et contracta est.