Job 16:15

15 I sewed sackcloth upon my skin, And defiled my horn with dust. 16 My face is exceeding red with weeping, And on mine eyelids is the shadow of death, 17 Although there is no wrong in my hand, And my prayer is pure. Coarse-haired cloth is the recognised clothing which the deeply sorrowful puts on, ἱμάτιον στενοχωρίας καὶ πένθους, as the Greek expositors remark. Job does not say of it that he put it on or slung it round him, but that he sewed it upon his naked body; and this is to be attributed to the hideous distortion of the body by elephantiasis, which will not admit of the use of the ordinary form of clothes. For the same reason he also uses, not עורי, but גּלדּי, which signifies either the scurfy scaly surface (as גּלד and הנליד in Talmudic of the scab of a healing wound, but also occurring e.g., of the bedaggled edge of clothes when it has become dry), or scornfully describes the skin as already almost dead; for the healthy skin is called עזר, גּלד, on the other hand, βύρσα (lxx), hide (esp. when removed from the body), Talm. e.g., sole-leather. We prefer the former interpretation (adopted by Raschi and others): The crust in which the terrible lepra has clothed his skin (vid., on Job 7:5; Job 30:18-19, Job 30:30) is intended. עללתּי in Job 16:15 is referred by Rosenm., Hirz., Ges., and others (as indeed by Saad. and Gecat., who transl. "I digged into"), to עלל (Arab. gll), to enter, penetrate: "I stuck my horn in the dust;" but this signification of the Hebrew עלל is unknown, it signifies rather to inflict pain, or scorn (e.g., Lam 3:51, mine eye causeth pain to my soul), generally with ל, here with the accusative: I have misused, i.e., injured or defiled (as the Jewish expositors explain), my horn with dust. This is not equivalent to my head (as in the Syr.…

This chapter begins Job's reply to that discourse of Eliphaz which we had in the foregoing chapter; it is but the second part of the same song of lamentation with which he had before bemoaned himself, and is set to the same melancholy tune. I. He upbraids his friends with their unkind usage of him (Job 16:1-5). II. He represents his own case as very deplorable upon all accounts (Job 16:6-16). III. He still holds fast his integrity, concerning which he appeals to God's righteous judgment from the unrighteous censures of his friends (Job 16:14-22).

16:15 Since Job insisted on his innocence, his wearing burlap (literally I sewed on burlap) was a sign of mourning, not penitence. Perhaps it was attached to indicate that he would never remove it because he could never be consoled (Gen 37:34-35). • My pride lies in the dust (literally I have buried my horn in the dust): A horn symbolized dignity and power (1 Sam 2:1; Pss 75:4-5; 89:17, 24; 92:10; 112:9; 148:14); cutting it off inflicted degrading humiliation (Ps 75:10; Jer 48:25; Zech 1:12).