Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 16:16
My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids [is] the shadow of death;
16. My face is foul ] The word may mean inflamed, from a root signifying to be red; or the root of the word may mean to ferment, and the reference be to the swollen and blurred appearance of the face from excessive weeping. Involuntary weeping is said to be a symptom of Elephantiasis. The second clause expresses another effect of this weeping, his eyes became dim (ch. Job 17:7, Psa 6:7; Psa 69:3), and there lay thick darkness upon them though this was also a sign of diminishing vitality; comp. Goethe’s dying cry, More light!
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
My face is foul with weeping – Wemyss, swelled. Noyes, red. Good, tarnished. Luther, ist geschwollen – is swelled. So Jerome. The Septuagint, strangely enough, , . . . he gaster mou sunkekautai, etc. my belly is burned with weeping. The Hebrew word ( chamar) means to boil up, to ferment, to foam. Hence, it means to be red, and the word is often used in this sense in Arabic – from the idea of becoming heated or inflamed. Here it probably means either to be swelled, as any thing does that ferments, or to be red as if heated – the usual effect of weeping. The idea of being defiled is not in the word.
And on my eyelid; is the shadow of death – On the meaning of the word rendered shadow of death, see the notes at Job 3:5. The meaning is, that darkness covered his eyes, and he felt that he was about to die. One of the usual indications of the approach of death is, that the sight fails, and everything seems to be dark. Hence, Homer so often describes death by the phrase, and darkness covered his eyes; or the form a cloud of death covered his eyes – thanatou nephos osse ekalupse. The idea here is, that he experienced the indications of approaching death.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 16. On my eyelids is the shadow of death] Death is now fast approaching me; already his shadow is projected over me.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
i. e. A gross and terrible darkness. My sight is very dim and dark, as is usual in case of sore diseases, or excessive grief and weeping, Lam 2:11; and especially in the approach of death: compare Psa 6:7; 38:10; Lam 5:17.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. foulrather, “isred,” that is, flushed and heated [UMBREITand NOYES].
shadow of deaththatis, darkening through many tears (La5:17). Job here refers to Zophar’s implied charge (Job11:14). Nearly the same words occur as to Jesus Christ (Isa53:9). So Job 16:10 aboveanswers to the description of Jesus Christ (Psa 22:13;Isa 50:6; Job 16:4;Psa 22:7). He alone realized whatJob aspired after, namely, outward righteousness of acts andinward purity of devotion. Jesus Christ as the representativeman is typified in some degree in every servant of God in the OldTestament.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
My face is foul with weeping,…. On account of the loss of his substance, and especially of his children; at the unkindness of his friends, and over his own corruptions, which he felt working in him, and breaking forth in unbecoming language; and because of the hidings of the face of God from him: the word used in the Arabic language i has the, signification of redness in it, as Aben Ezra and others observe; of red wine, and, as Schultens adds, of the fermentation of it; and is fitly used to express a man’s face in excessive weeping, which looks red, and swelled, and blubbered:
and on my eyelids [is] the shadow of death; which were become dim through weeping, so that he could scarcely see out of them, and, like a dying man, could hardly lift them up; and such was his sorrowful condition, that he never expected deliverance from it, but that it would issue in death; and which he supposed was very near, and that he had many symptoms of it, of which the decay of his eyesight was one; and he was so far from winking with his eyes in a wanton and ludicrous way, as Eliphaz had hinted, Job 15:12; that there was such a dead weight upon them, even the shadow of death itself, that he was not able to lift them up.
i “intumuit”, V. L. Tigurine version; “fermentescit”, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(16) Foul.Rather, perhaps, red, as with wine.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. Foul with weeping Inflamed by the heat of the tears.
Shadow of death The Iliad frequently has the expression, “The cloud of death surrounds his eyes.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 16:16 My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids [is] the shadow of death;
Ver. 16. My face is foul with weeping ] Is swelled, saith the Vulgate. Is shrivelled up, say the Jewish doctors. Is doublely dirtied, so one rendereth it. So far was Job from stretching out his hand against God, and strengthening himself against the Almighty, as Elipbaz had charged him, Job 15:25 , that he lay at God’s feet as a suppliant, with blubbered and beslubbered cheeks; having furrows in his face, and icicles from his lips with continual weeping; yea, he had wept himself blind almost, for so it followeth,
And on mine eyelids is the shadow of death
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
shadow of death. Not a mere shade or shadow, but the deep darkness of the grave. Compare Job 3:5; Job 10:21; Job 12:22; Job 24:17; Job 28:3; Job 34:22, &c.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
face: Psa 6:6, Psa 6:7, Psa 31:9, Psa 32:3, Psa 69:3, Psa 102:3-5, Psa 102:9, Isa 52:14, Lam 1:16
on my eyelids: Job 17:7, Psa 116:3, Jon 2:1-10, Mar 14:34
Reciprocal: Job 3:5 – the shadow