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Easy-to-Read Version

Job 30:18

God grabbed the collar of my coat and twisted my clothes out of shape.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Pain;  

Dictionaries:

- Easton Bible Dictionary - Collar;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Dress;   King James Dictionary - Collar;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Coat;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Collar;   Dress;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Coat;   Collar;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
My clothing is distorted with great force;he chokes me by the neck of my garment.
Hebrew Names Version
By great force is my garment disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
King James Version
By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
English Standard Version
With great force my garment is disfigured; it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
New Century Version
In his great power God grabs hold of my clothing and chokes me with the collar of my coat.
New English Translation
With great power God grasps my clothing; he binds me like the collar of my tunic.
Amplified Bible
"By the great force [of my disease] my garment (skin) is disfigured and blemished; It binds about me [choking me] like the collar of my coat.
New American Standard Bible
"By a great force my garment is distorted; It ties me up like the collar of my coat.
World English Bible
By great force is my garment disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For the great vehemencie is my garment changed, which compasseth me about as the colar of my coate.
Legacy Standard Bible
By a great force my garment is distorted;It seizes me about as the collar of my tunic.
Berean Standard Bible
With great force He grasps my garment; He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.
Contemporary English Version
and God has shrunk my skin, choking me to death.
Complete Jewish Bible
My clothes are disfigured by the force [of my disease]; they choke me like the collar of my coat.
Darby Translation
By their great force they have become my raiment; they bind me about as the collar of my coat.
George Lamsa Translation
I have put on my garment; and girded up myself with my robe.
Good News Translation
God seizes me by my collar and twists my clothes out of shape.
Lexham English Bible
He seizes my clothing with great power; he grasps me by my tunic's collar.
Literal Translation
By the great force of my disease my garment is disfigured; it chokes me like the mouth of my coat.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
With all their power haue they chaunged my garmet, & gyrded me therwith, as it were wt a coate.
American Standard Version
By God's great force is my garment disfigured; It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
Bible in Basic English
With great force he takes a grip of my clothing, pulling me by the neck of my coat.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
By the great force [of my disease] is my garment disfigured; it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
King James Version (1611)
By the great force of my disease, is my garment changed: it bindeth mee about as the collar of my coat.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For the vehemencie of sorowe is my garment chaunged, whiche compasseth me about as the coller of my coote.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
With great force my disease has taken hold of my garment: it has compassed me as the collar of my coat.
English Revised Version
By the great force of my disease is my garment disfigured: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
In the multitude of tho my cloth is wastid, and thei han gird me as with coler of a coote.
Update Bible Version
By [God's] great force is my garment disfigured; It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
Webster's Bible Translation
By the great force [of my disease] is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
New King James Version
By great force my garment is disfigured; It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
New Living Translation
With a strong hand, God grabs my shirt. He grips me by the collar of my coat.
New Life Bible
My clothing is torn by a strong power. It pulls against me like the top of my coat.
New Revised Standard
With violence he seizes my garment; he grasps me by the collar of my tunic.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Most effectually, is my skin disfigured, - Like the collar of my tunic, it girdeth me about:
Douay-Rheims Bible
With the multitude of them my garment is consumed, and they have girded me about, as with the collar of my coat.
Revised Standard Version
With violence it seizes my garment; it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
Young's Literal Translation
By the abundance of power, Is my clothing changed, As the mouth of my coat it doth gird me.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"By a great force my garment is distorted; It binds me about as the collar of my coat.

Contextual Overview

15 I am shaking with fear. They chased my honor away like dust in the wind. My safety disappears like a cloud. 16 "Now my life is almost gone, and soon I will die. Days of suffering have grabbed me. 17 All my bones ache at night. Pain never stops chewing on me. 18 God grabbed the collar of my coat and twisted my clothes out of shape. 19 He threw me into the mud, and I became like dust and ashes. 20 "God, I cry out to you for help, but you don't answer. I stand up and pray, but you don't pay attention to me. 21 You have become cruel to me; you use your power to hurt me. 22 You let the strong wind blow me away. You throw me around in the storm. 23 I know you will lead me to my death, to that place where all the living must go. 24 "Surely no one would attack a man who is already ruined, when he is hurt and crying for help.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

By the great: Job 2:7, Job 7:5, Job 19:20, Psalms 38:5, Isaiah 1:5, Isaiah 1:6

Reciprocal: Psalms 38:7 - my loins

Cross-References

Genesis 30:14
During the wheat harvest Reuben went into the fields and found some special flowers. He brought them to his mother Leah. But Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's flowers."
Genesis 30:15
Leah answered, "You have already taken away my husband. Now you are trying to take away my son's flowers." But Rachel answered, "If you will give me your son's flowers, you can sleep with Jacob tonight."
Genesis 35:23
His firstborn son was Reuben, whose mother was Leah. Jacob's other sons by Leah were Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
Genesis 46:13
Issachar's sons were Tola, Puah, Job, and Shimron.
Deuteronomy 33:18
Moses said this about Zebulun: "Zebulun, be happy when you go out. Issachar, be happy in your tents at home.
1 Chronicles 12:32
From the family of Issachar there were 200 wise leaders. These men understood the right thing for Israel to do at the right time. Their relatives were with them and under their command.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

By the great force [of my disease] is my garment changed,.... Either the colour of it, through the purulent matter from his ulcers running down upon it, or penetrating through it; or by reason of it he was obliged to shift himself, and to have a change of raiment very frequently; or the supplement, "of my disease", may be left out, and the sense be, with great force, through main strength, and with much difficulty, his garment was changed, was got off from him, sticking so close to him, and another put on:

it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat; his disease encompassed him about on all sides as the collar or edge of his coat encompassed his neck, and cleaved as close, and was as tight unto him as that, and threatened him perhaps with a suffocation or strangling; see Job 7:15; the allusion is to garments used in the eastern countries, which were only open at top and bottom; at the top there was a hole to put the head through when put on, and a binding about it, and a button to it, or some such thing, which kept it tight about the neck; see Exodus 28:32.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

By the great force of my disease - The words “of my disease” are not in the Hebrew. The usual interpretation of the passage is, that in consequence of the foul and offensive nature of his malady, his garment had become discolored or defiled - changed from being white and clear to filthiness and offensiveness. Some have understood it as referring to the skin, and as denoting that it was so affected with the leprosy, that he could scarcely be recognized. Umbreit supposes it to mean, “Through the omnipotence of God has my white robe of honor been changed into a narrow garment of grief” - trauerkleid. Dr. Good renders it, “From the abundance of the acrimony;” that is, of the fierce or acrimonious humor, “it is changed into a garment for me.” Coverdale, “With all their power have they changed my garment, and girded me therewith, as it were with a coat.” Prof. Lee, “With much violence doth my clothing bind me.”

According to Schultens, it means, “My affliction puts itself on in the form of my clothing;” and the whole passage, that without and within, from the head to the feet, he was entirely diseased. His affliction was his outer garment, and it was his inner garment - his mantle and his tunic. The Hebrew is difficult. The phrase rendered “by the great force,” means, literally, “by the multitude of strength” - and may refer to the strength of disease, or to the strength of God, or to the force with which his garment girded him. The word rendered “is changed” - יתחפשׂ yitchâphaś, is from חפשׂ châphaś, to seek, to search after in the Qal; in the Hithpael, the form used here, to let oneself be sought; to hide oneself; to disguise one’s self; 1 Kings 20:38. According to this, it would mean that his garment was disquised; that is, its appearance was changed by the force of his disease. Gesenius. Jerome renders it, “In their multitude, my garment is consumed; the Septuagint, “With great force he took hold of my garment.” Of these various interpretations, it is impossible to determine which is the correct one. The prevailing interpretation seems to be, that by the strength of his disease his garment was changed in its appearance, so as to become offensive, and yet this is a somewhat feeble sense to give to the passage. Perhaps the explanation of Schultens is the best, “By the greatness of power, pain or disease has become my garment; it girds me about like the mouth of my tunic.” He has shown, by a great variety of instances, that it is common in Arabic poetry to compare pain, sickness, anxiety, etc., to clothing.

It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat - The collar of my tunic, or under garment. This was made like a shirt, to be gathered around the neck, and the idea is, that his disease fitted close to him, and was gathered close around him.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 30:18. Is my garment changed — There seem to be here plain allusions to the effect of his cruel disease; the whole body being enveloped with a kind of elephantine hide, formed by innumerable incrustations from the ulcerated surface.

It bindeth me about — There is now a new kind of covering to my body, formed by the effects of this disease; and it is not a garment which I can cast off; it is as closely attached to me as the collar of my coat. Or, my disease seizes me as a strong armed man; it has throttled me, and cast me in the mud. This is probably an allusion to two persons struggling: the stronger seizes the other by the throat, brings him down, and treads him in the dirt.


 
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