Job 7:5
A plain-spoken deep dive on this verse. Read the chapter →
My flesh is clothed with worms and encrusted with dirt; my skin is cracked and festering.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Job, in this chapter, goes on to express the bitter sense he had of his calamities and to justify himself in his desire of death. I. He complains to himself and his friends of his troubles, and the constant agitation he was in (Job 7:1-6). II. He turns to God, and expostulates with him (Job 7:7, to the end), in which, 1. He pleads the final period which death puts to our present state (Job 7:7-10). 2. He passionately complains of the miserable condition he was now in (Job 7:11-16). 3. He wonders that God will thus contend with him, and begs for the pardon of his sins and a speedy release out of his miseries (Job 7:17-21). It is hard to methodize the speeches of one who owned himself almost desperate, Job 6:26.
Open source ↗7:5 Job’s reference to maggots signified mortality (25:6) and the rampant corruption of Sheol (17:14; 21:26; 24:20; see Isa 14:11).
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are your bed and worms your blanket.
and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
Immediately, because Herod did not give glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.
Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.
There you will remember your ways and all the deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves for all the evils you have done.
The womb forgets them; the worm feeds on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is like a broken tree.
then You would plunge me into the pit, and even my own clothes would despise me.
“As they go forth, they will see the corpses of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never be quenched, and they will be a horror to all mankind.”
From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there is no soundness— only wounds and welts and festering sores neither cleansed nor bandaged nor soothed with oil.