Job 7:5 · Bible study
Job 7:5 Commentary: Hebrew Semantics of Physical Decay
Hebrew · 10 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Explore the raw suffering in Job 7:5 as he describes his body clothed with worms and dust.
Research Summary
- Meaning: Job graphically describes his body covered with maggots, crusted sores, and a cycle of healing and rupture, a living death.
- Key words: lavash (clothed, covering completely), gush aphar (clod of dust, crusted filth), ragac (hardens/contracts), mamas (melts/runs).
- Main debate: Whether the language is strictly literal or partly figurative; most commentators take it as a real description of elephantiasis.
- Theological theme: Honest lament in the face of prolonged, intense suffering; suffering that does not break the sufferer’s relationship with God.
- Best use: Teaching on lament, pastoral care for the chronically ill, and honest prayer in small groups.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
My flesh is clothed with worms and encrusted with dirt; my skin is cracked and festering.
WEB World English Bible 2000
My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
KJV King James Version 1769
My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; My skin closeth up, and breaketh out afresh.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
Clothed hath been my flesh with worms, And a clod of dust, My skin hath been shrivelled and is loathsome,
Darby Darby Bible 1890
My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and suppurates.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
My flesh is clothed with rottenness and the filth of dust; my skin is withered and drawn together.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Mi carne está vestida de gusanos, y de costras de polvo; mi piel hendida y abominable.
Minha carne está coberta de vermes e de crostas de pó; meu pele está rachada e horrível.
Mon corps se couvre de vers et d’ une croûte terreuse,
Mein Fleisch ist um und um wurmig und knotig; meine Haut ist verschrumpft und zunichte geworden.
Mijn vlees is met het gewormte en met het gruis des stofs bekleed; mijn huid is gekliefd en verachtelijk geworden.
La mia carne è coperta di vermi e di croste terrose, la mia pelle si richiude, poi riprende a suppurare.
Obleczone jest ciało moje w robaki i w plugastwo z prochu; skóra moja popadała się, i rozsiadła się.
Тело мое одето червями и пыльными струпами; кожа моя лопается и гноится.
我的肉體 以蟲子 和塵土 為衣；我的皮膚 才收了口 又重新破裂。
My flesh is covered with worms and dust; my skin gets hard and then is cracked again.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Job 7:5
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that Job 7:5 offers a literal description of his physical state. Henry notes that worms bred out of his corrupted flesh and sores; the dust came from the ground where he lay. Barnes and Clarke connect this to elephantiasis, a disease causing ulcers that breed maggots and form crusty scales. The Hebrew verb ragac (רגע) is read by Gesenius and JFB as “closes up and breaks afresh”, a cycle of healing and suppurating that never ends. Keil and Delitzsch stress that the verb forms (Qal perfects and consecutive imperfects) show ongoing, repeated action. The Cambridge Bible draws this verse into Job’s wider argument: the exhausting pain of vv. 3, 5 leads naturally to the complaint that life is both evil and brief (v. 6). Gill sees it as a “dismal spectacle” that justifies Job’s cry for death. There is broad agreement that the verse portrays the height of physical misery, and that Job uses it to argue why his lament is not unreasonable.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Literal medical description: Relies on Job 2:7-8, the lexical data for 'worms' and 'clods of dust', and comparative ancient medical texts (Bochart, Michaelis).
- Metaphor for living death: Points to Job's later references to the grave (ch. 17) and the idea that the body is already undergoing decay; supported by Dr. Good's reading.
- Psychological portrayal of misery: Emphasizes the emotional impact: the imagery serves to justify Job's complaint, not to provide a clinical diagnosis (Matthew Henry).
What is clear: Regardless of the exact disease or degree of literalness, Job is communicating extreme, ongoing physical suffering that he uses to argue that his desire for death is a reasonable response.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Literalness of the imagery | The description of worms, crust, and cracked skin is drawn from real physical signs of disease. | Some (Clarke, Barnes) see it as strictly literal, naming actual maggots and dried pus. Others (Good, as cited by Barnes) read it as a metaphor for a state of living death. |
| Identification of the disease | Most connect it to the painful sores of Job 2:7 and a chronic skin condition. | Many follow Bochart and Michaelis in identifying elephantiasis; others, like Gill, mention a vermicular or pedicular disease. The exact diagnosis remains unknown. |
| Interpretation of the skin cycle | The verbs <em>ragac</em> and <em>mamas</em> indicate two successive actions involving the skin. | Gesenius and JFB read it as a cycle, heals then breaks open, while Jerome and Jarchi read it as simply shriveling or drying up. Modern versions tend toward the cyclical reading. |
| Place in Job's argument | The verse grounds Job’s desire for death in actual, unbearable suffering. | Some (Cambridge Bible) see this as part of a coherent argument that life is evil and brief; others (Matthew Henry) view Job as overstepping into inordinate desire, and the verse merely excuses what cannot be justified. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Job 7:5 sits within the first of Job’s formal replies to Eliphaz (chs. 6, 7). The sufferer has been struck with “painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head” (Job 2:7), and scrapes himself with a potsherd while sitting in ashes (2:8). Ancient Near Eastern medicine had limited means for treating open wounds, especially in a climate where flies and insects would quickly deposit eggs. Several commentators, including Michaelis and Bochart as cited by Barnes, note that maggots appear regularly in the ulcers of elephantiasis, a disease known in the ancient world. Job’s reference to “clods of dust” may refer to the dried pus and scabs that formed on his sores (Clarke), or to the loose earth that clung to his moist body as he sat among ashes (Barnes). The verse also echoes the language of the grave: in Job 17:14 he calls the worm his mother, and in 21:26 the worm feeds on the dead. Here the imagery of being “clothed” with worms and dust portrays a living death, a body already in decay before burial. The literary context is crucial: Job contrasts the unrelenting nature of his suffering (v. 5) with the swift passing of his days (v. 6). Both are true at once, his pain is constant, yet his life is brief. This tension drives his prayer for God to remember that his life is a breath (v. 7).
Textual Notes
The consulted sources note no significant textual variants for Job 7:5. The received Masoretic text is stable. The Septuagint renders the verse more expansively (“my body swarms with the putrefaction of worms, and I moisten the clods of earth with the ichor of ulcers”), but this is a translational paraphrase, not evidence of a different Hebrew Vorlage. The Hebrew verbs ragac and mamas are well-attested in manuscripts, and commentators consistently read them as describing a recurrent cycle of hardening and liquefying.
Reception History
Early Christian interpreters often read Job 7:5 typologically, seeing in Job’s physical decay a foreshadowing of Christ’s suffering (Gregory the Great, Moralia). Medieval Jewish commentators like Rashi focused on the medical reality, identifying the condition as a severe form of skin disease. During the Reformation, Luther and Calvin used the verse to argue that even the greatest saints experience intense physical affliction, and that lament is permissible within faith. Modern interpreters since the 19th century (Bochart, Michaelis, Clarke) have employed medical knowledge to identify the symptoms with elephantiasis or similar illnesses. The verse has also been a touchstone in pastoral theology for validating the experience of chronic pain. Across every era, readers have recognized in Job’s cry a model for honesty before God about bodily suffering.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- The reality of suffering: Job does not spiritualize or minimize his pain. He names the worms, the crust, the cracks, honest lament before God.
- The cycle of affliction: “My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.” There is no rest, no lasting relief. This echoes the human experience of chronic pain or repeated trials.
- The argument from misery: Job uses this graphic description to defend his desire for death. He is not sinning by wishing for an end; he is honestly processing the unbearable.
Five-point outline
- Clothed in decay, the Hebrew verb lavash (to clothe) stresses that his affliction completely covers him, like a garment.
- Worms and dust, these are signs of death already present on a living body. Job feels himself decomposing.
- Skin that hardens and melts, the verbs ragac (to harden/contract) and mamas (to melt/run) describe a torturous cycle: crusts form, then crack and ooze.
- This suffering has no pause, unlike the hired hand who rests at evening (vv. 1, 2), Job has no respite.
- The cry for God to notice, the verse builds toward the plea in v. 7: “Remember that my life is a breath.”
Illustration hooks
- A caregiver who dresses a chronic wound day after day, watching it heal and then break open again.
- The feeling of being “covered” by a condition, illness, grief, anxiety, that touches every part of life.
- The outsider who sees only the crust without understanding the pain underneath.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Is it okay to tell God exactly how much I am suffering?
- Does faith require me to stop complaining when I am in pain?
- How can I hold together both the brevity of life and the crushing length of a hard season?
Leading a Discussion
Job 7:5 strips away any polite distance from suffering. Job names maggots and crust, cracks and ooze. This kind of honesty can be unsettling, but it is biblical. The small group setting is a safe place to ask: what does raw honesty with God look like for us?
Discussion questions
- When you read this verse, what do you feel? Why do you think God included such graphic language in Scripture?
- Look at the Hebrew word lavash, “clothed.” What does it mean that Job says his suffering covers him like a garment?
- The verbs ragac (hardens) and mamas (melts/runs) describe a cycle. Have you ever felt stuck in a repeating pattern of pain or difficulty?
- How does the physical description in v. 5 connect to Job’s argument about the brevity of life in vv. 6, 10?
- Job’s friends thought his suffering was a punishment for sin. How does reading Job’s own description challenge that assumption?
- Does Job’s honesty encourage you to pray differently? What would you say to God about a hard season in your life?
- If someone in your church group described their body with language similar to Job’s, how would you respond? What would be helpful to say or do?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Job 2:7 | So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head. |
| Job 2:8 | He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes. |
| Job 9:31 | yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes will abhor me. |
| Job 17:14 | if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’ |
| Job 19:26 | After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh, |
| Job 24:20 | The womb will forget him. The worm will feed sweetly on him. He will be no more remembered. Unrighteousness will be broken as a tree. |
| Job 30:18 | My garment is disfigured by great force. It binds me about as the collar of my tunic. |
| Job 30:19 | He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
10 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke notes that Job describes his skin as covered with worms because of severe ulcers that allowed insects to lay eggs there. He also believes the phrase my skin is broken refers to hard dried pus scales falling off his body.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes insists that Job is describing his actual physical condition, not a poetic image of death or the grave. He argues the worms and clods of earth refer to accumulated filth from running sores, typical of a disease like elephantiasis. The skin becomes stiff, wrinkled, and terror-inspiring, genuinely loathsome to others.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges sees Job’s constant sores as proof that life is the greatest good which should be long and free from evil. His pain shows life was created by God to be both bad and short.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva note dwells on the physical horror Job describes: his flesh is not simply afflicted but infested with worms and crusted with dirt, and his skin is torn open and repulsive. The comment emphasizes how utterly reduced and loathsome Job's condition has become.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill stresses that Job is describing his present, living misery, not his future death. His open sores breed worms and mix with dust, forming clods that cover him like a garment. This ongoing, visible decay makes his own body utterly loathsome to himself and others.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
The Hebrew word means my skin stops hurting for a short time before it breaks open again. This shows the sores will not fully heal.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil and Delitzsch note that the word for night means fleeing away rather than extending. This shows how long the period of sleeplessness appears because the night starts early.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange argues that Job’s sin is not in expressing doubt or accusing God of hostility, but in stubbornly clinging to those thoughts and attributing mercilessness to God. Unlike the psalmists who eventually turn back to faith, Job refuses to relent, and his persistence becomes the real fault.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Henry notes that man’s life on earth is short and full of trouble which makes it natural to want death. His view holds that being on earth shows God’s mercy since people are not yet in hell.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley’s focus is on the raw physical misery of Job’s affliction: worms bred from his own infected sores, the dust of the ground where he lay, and his skin broken completely by ulcers. Every detail underscores a total, extreme degradation of the body.