Job 16:8

Literal Standard Version

And You loathe me, || For it has been a witness, || And my failure rises up against me, || It testifies in my face.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
You have shriveled me up—it has become a witness;my frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.

Hebrew Names Version
You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me, It testifies to my face.

King James Version
And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.

English Standard Version
And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me, and my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face.

New Century Version
You have made me thin and weak, and this shows I have done wrong.

New English Translation
You have seized me, and it has become a witness; my leanness has risen up against me and testifies against me.

Amplified Bible
"You have taken a firm hold on me and have shriveled me up, It has become a witness [against me]; And my leanness [and infirmity] rises up [as evidence] against me, It testifies to my face [about my guilt].

New American Standard Bible
"And You have shriveled me up, It has become a witness; And my infirmity rises up against me, It testifies to my face.

World English Bible
You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me, It testifies to my face.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And hast made me full of wrinkles which is a witnesse thereof, and my leannes ryseth vp in me, testifying the same in my face.

Legacy Standard Bible
You have shriveled me up,It has become a witness;And my leanness rises up against me,It answers to my face.

Berean Standard Bible
You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.

Contemporary English Version
my shriveled up skin proves that I am his prisoner.

Complete Jewish Bible
Besides, you have shriveled me up; and this serves to witness against me. My being so thin rises up against me and testifies to my face.

Darby Translation
Thou hast shrivelled me up! it is become a witness; and my leanness riseth up against me, it beareth witness to my face.

Easy-to-Read Version
You have made me thin and weak, and people think that means I am guilty.

George Lamsa Translation
Thou didst appoint me and I became a witness, but my lies have testified against me; and I spoke in his presence.

Good News Translation
You have seized me; you are my enemy. I am skin and bones, and people take that as proof of my guilt.

Lexham English Bible
Thus you shriveled me up; it became a witness. And my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face.

Literal Translation
And You have plucked me; for it is a witness, and my failure rises up against me; and it answers to my face.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
(wherof my wryncles beare wytnesse) there stodeth vp a dyssembler to make me answere with lyes to my face.

American Standard Version
And thou hast laid fast hold on me, which is a witness against me: And my leanness riseth up against me, It testifieth to my face.

Bible in Basic English
It has come up as a witness against me, and the wasting of my flesh makes answer to my face.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And Thou hast shrivelled me up, which is a witness against me; and my leanness riseth up against me, it testifieth to my face.

King James Version (1611)
And thou hast filled mee with wrinckles, which is a witnesse against me: and my leannesse rising vp in me, beareth witnesse to my face.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And that thou hast filled me with wrinckles my fleshe is recorde, and my leanenesse ryseth vp against me and beareth witnes thereof in my face.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
But now he has made me weary, and a worn-out fool; and thou hast laid hold of me.

English Revised Version
And thou hast laid fast hold on me, which is a witness against me: and my leanness riseth up against me, it testifieth to my face.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
My ryuelyngis seien witnessyng ayens me, and a fals spekere is reisid ayens my face, and ayenseith me.

Update Bible Version
And you have shriveled me up, [which] is a witness [against me]: And my leanness rises up against me, It testifies to my face.

Webster's Bible Translation
And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, [which] is a witness [against me]: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.

New King James Version
You have shriveled me up, And it is a witness against me; My leanness rises up against me And bears witness to my face.

New Living Translation
As if to prove I have sinned, you've reduced me to skin and bones. My gaunt flesh testifies against me.

New Life Bible
He has made me dry up, and this speaks against me. The wasting away of my body rises up against me. It speaks against me to my face.

New Revised Standard
And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me; my leanness has risen up against me, and it testifies to my face.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And, having captured me, it hath served, as a witness; and so my wasting away hath risen up against me, in my face, it answereth.

Douay-Rheims Bible
(16-9) My wrinkles bear witness against me, and a false speaker riseth up against my face, contradicting me.

Revised Standard Version
And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me; and my leanness has risen up against me, it testifies to my face.

Young's Literal Translation
And Thou dost loathe me, For a witness it hath been, And rise up against me doth my failure, In my face it testifieth.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"You have shriveled me up, It has become a witness; And my leanness rises up against me, It testifies to my face.

Contextual Overview

⁶If I speak, my pain is not restrained, || And I cease—what goes from me? ⁷Only, now, it has wearied me; You have desolated all my company, ⁸And You loathe me, || For it has been a witness, || And my failure rises up against me, || It testifies in my face.⁹His anger has torn, and He hates me, || He has gnashed at me with His teeth, || My adversary sharpens His eyes for me. ¹⁰They have gaped on me with their mouth, || In reproach they have struck my cheeks, || Together they set themselves against me. ¹¹God shuts me up to the perverse, || And turns me over to the hands of the wicked. ¹²I have been at ease, and He breaks me, || And He has laid hold on my neck, || And He breaks me in pieces, || And He raises me to Him for a mark. ¹³His archers go around against me. He split my reins, and does not spare, || He pours out my gall to the earth. ¹⁴He breaks me—breach on breach, || He runs on me as a mighty one. ¹⁵I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, || And have rolled my horn in the dust.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

And thou hast: etc. Some render, "thou has fettered me," as kamat signifies in Arabic; but as it signifies in Syriac to be wrinkled, the common version seems, from the connexion, to be more correct; and if Job's disease were the elephantiasis, these words would apply most forcibly to the wrinkled state of the skin in that disorder.

is a witness: Job 10:17, Ruth 1:21, Ephesians 5:27

my leanness: Psalms 106:15, Isaiah 10:16, Isaiah 24:16

Reciprocal: Lamentations 3:4 - My flesh James 5:3 - a witness

Cross-References

Genesis 3:9
And YHWH God calls to the man and says to him, "Where [are] you?"

Genesis 4:10
And He says, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground;

Genesis 16:1
And Sarai, Abram's wife, has not borne to him, and she has a handmaid, an Egyptian, and her name [is] Hagar;

Genesis 16:2
and Sarai says to Abram, "Now behold, YHWH has restrained me from bearing, please go in to my handmaid; perhaps I am built up from her"; and Abram listens to the voice of Sarai.

Genesis 16:4
and he goes in to Hagar, and she conceives, and she sees that she has conceived, and her mistress is lightly esteemed in her eyes.

Genesis 16:5
And Sarai says to Abram, "My violence [is] for you; I have given my handmaid into your bosom, and she sees that she has conceived, and I am lightly esteemed in her eyes; YHWH judges between me and you."

Genesis 16:8
and He says, "Hagar, Sarai's handmaid, from where have you come, and to where do you go?" And she says, "From the presence of Sarai, my mistress, I am fleeing."

1 Samuel 26:19
And now, please let my lord the king hear the words of his servant: if YHWH has moved you against me, let Him accept a present; but if [merely] the sons of men, they [are] cursed before YHWH, for today they have cast me out from being admitted into the inheritance of YHWH, saying, Go, serve other gods.

Ecclesiastes 10:4
If the spirit of the ruler goes up against you, do not leave your place, || For yielding quiets great sinners.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And thou hast filled me with wrinkles,.... Not through old age, but through affliction, which had sunk his flesh, and made furrows in him, so that he looked older than he was, and was made old thereby before his time; see Lamentations 3:4; for this is to be understood of his body, for as for his soul, that through the grace of God, and righteousness of Christ, was without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing:

[which] is a witness [against me]; as it was improved by his friends, who represented his afflictions as proofs and testimonies of his being a bad man; though these wrinkles were witnesses for him, as it may be as well supplied, that he really was an afflicted man:

and my leanness rising up in me; his bones standing up, and standing out, and having scarce anything on them but skin, the flesh being gone:

beareth witness to my face; openly, manifestly, to full conviction; not that he was a sinful man, but an afflicted man; Eliphaz had no reason to talk to Job of a wicked man's being covered with fatness, and of collops of fat on his flanks, Job 15:27;

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And thou hast filled me with wrinkles - Noyes renders this, “and thou hast seized hold of me, which is a witness against me.” Wemyss, “since thou hast bound me with chains, witnesses come forward.” Good, “and hast cut off myself from becoming a witness.” Luther, “he has made me “kuntzlich” (skillfully, artificially, cunningly,) and bears witness against me.” Jerome, “my wrinkles bear witness against me.” Septuagint, “my lie has become a witness, and is risen up against me.” From this variety of explanations, it will be seen that this passage is not of easy and obvious construction. The Hebrew word which is here used and rendered, “thou hast filled me with wrinkles” (תקמטני tı̂qâmaṭēnı̂y), from קמט qâmaṭ - occurs only in one other place in the Bible; Job 22:16. It is there in the “Pual” form, and rendered “were cut down.” According to Gesenius, it means, to lay fast hold of, to seize with the hands, and answers to the Arabic “to bind.”

The word in Chaldee (קמט qâmaṭ) means to wrinkle, or collect in wrinkles; and is applied to anything that is “contracted,” or rough. It is applied in the form קימט qâymaṭ to the pupil of the eye as being “contracted,” as in the declaration in Derek ‘Erets, c. 5, quoted by Castell. “The world is like the eye; where the ocean that surrounds the world is white; the world itself is black; the pupil is Jerusalem, and the image in the pupil is the sanctuary.” Probably the true notion of the word is to be found in the Arabic. According to Castell, this means, to tie together the four feet of a sheep or lamb, in order that it might be slain; to bind an infant in swaddling clothes before it is laid in a cradle; to collect camels into a group or herd; and hence, the noun is used to denote a cord or rope twisted of wool, or of leaves of the palm, or the bandages by which an infant is bound. This idea is not in use in the Hebrew; but I have no doubt that this was the original sense of the word, and that this is one of the numerous places in Job where light may be cast upon the meaning of a word from its use in Arabic. The Hebrew word may be applied to the “collecting” or “contraction” of the face in wrinkles by age, but this is not the sense here. We should express the idea by “being “drawn up” with pain or affliction; by being straitened, or compressed.” The meaning - is that of “drawing together” - as the feet of a sheep when tied, or twisting - as a rope; and the idea here is, that Job was drawn up, compressed, bound by his afflictions - and that this was a witness against him. The word “compressed” comes as near to the sense as any one that we have.

Which is a witness against me - That is, “this is an argument against my innocence. The fact that God has thus compressed, and fettered, and fastened me; that he has bound me as with a cord - as if I were tied for the slaughter, is an argument on which my friends insist, and to which they appeal, as a proof of my guilt. I cannot answer it. They refer to it constantly. It is the burden of their demonstration, and how can I reply to it?” The position of mind here is, that he could appeal to God for his uprightness, but these afflictions stood in the way of his argument for his innocence with his friends. They were the “usual” proofs of God’s displeasure, and he could not well meet the argument which was drawn from them in his case, for in all his protestations of innocence there stood these afflictions - the usual proofs of God’s displeasure against people - as evidence against him, to which they truimphantly appealed.

And my leanness rising up in me - Dr. Good renders this, “my calumniator.” Wemyss, “false witnesses.” So Jerome, “falsiloquus.” The Septuagint renders it,” my lie - τὸ ψευδός μου to pseudos mou - rises up against me.” The Hebrew word (כחשׁ kachash) means properly “a lie, deceit, hypocrisy.” But it cannot be supposed that Job would formally admit that he was a liar and a hypocrite. This would have been to concede the whole point in dispute. The word, therefore, it would seem, “must” have some other sense. The verb כחשׁ kâchash is used to denote not only to “lie,” but also to “waste away, to fail.” Psalms 109:24, “my flesh “faileth” of fatness.” The idea seems to have been, that a person whose flesh had wasted away by sickness, as it were, “belied himself;” or it was a “false testimony” about himself; it did not give “a fair representation” of him. That could be obtained only when he was in sound health. Thus, in Habakkuk 3:17, “the labour of the olive “shall fail.”” Hebrew shall “lie” or “deceive;” that is, it shall belie itself, or shall not do justice to itself; it shall afford no fair representation of what the olive is fitted to produce. So the word is used Hosea 9:2. It is used here in this sense, as denoting “the false appearance of Job” - his present aspect - which was no proper representation of himself; that is, his emaciated and ulcerated form. This, he says, was a “witness” against him. It was one of the proofs to which they appealed, and he did not know how to answer it. It was usually an evidence of divine displeasure, and he now solemnly and tenderly addresses God, and says, that he had furnished this testimony against him - and he was overwhelmed.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 16:8. Thou hast filled me with wrinkles — If Job's disease were the elephantiasis, in which the whole skin is wrinkled as the skin of the elephant, from which this species of leprosy has taken its name, these words would apply most forcibly to it; but the whole passage, through its obscurity, has been variously rendered. Calmet unites it with the preceding, and Houbigant is not very different. He translates thus: - "For my trouble hath now weakened all my frame, and brought wrinkles over me: he is present as a witness, and ariseth against me, who telleth lies concerning me; he openly contradicts me to my face." Mr. Good translates nearly in the same way; others still differently.