The Meaning of Job 16:16 Explained

Job 16:16

KJV: My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

YLT: My face is foul with weeping, And on mine eyelids is death-shade.

Darby: My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

ASV: My face is red with weeping, And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

KJV Reverse Interlinear

My face  is foul  with weeping,  and on my eyelids  [is] the shadow of death; 

What does Job 16:16 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 16:1-22 - Turning From "miserable Comforters" Unto God
With bitterness the sufferer turns from his comforters to God. As the r.v. makes clear, he says that if he were in their place and they in his, instead of joining words together and evincing the pride of the immaculate, he would set himself to speak strengthening words and to assuage their grief by tender sympathy.
He compares his pains to the attack of a wild beast, Job 16:7-14; and from this he proceeds to describe the anguish of his grief, Job 16:15-20. But toward the end of the chapter a new thought begins to shape itself; and from his lowest despair he catches sight of a Vindicator and a vindication that must someday be his. Job 16:21 should be read as in the r.v., margin. Job wanted a son of man to plead for him; and his prayer has been more than answered in the Son of man, who pleads for us "not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an indissoluble life," Hebrews 7:16. "O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul," Lamentations 3:58. [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 16

1  Job reproves his friends for unmercifulness
17  He maintains his innocence

What do the individual words in Job 16:16 mean?

My face - is flushed from weeping and on my eyelids [is] the shadow of death
פָּנַ֣י [חמרמרה] (חֳ֭מַרְמְרוּ) מִנִּי־ בֶ֑כִי וְעַ֖ל עַפְעַפַּ֣י צַלְמָֽוֶת

פָּנַ֣י  My  face 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural construct, first person common singular
Root: לִפְנֵי 
Sense: face.
[חמרמרה]  - 
Parse: Verb, Piel, Perfect, third person feminine singular
(חֳ֭מַרְמְרוּ)  is  flushed 
Parse: Verb, Piel, Perfect, third person common plural
Root: חָמַר 
Sense: to boil, foam, foam up, ferment.
בֶ֑כִי  weeping 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: בְּכִי  
Sense: a weeping, weeping.
וְעַ֖ל  and  on 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Preposition
Root: עַל 
Sense: upon, on the ground of, according to, on account of, on behalf of, concerning, beside, in addition to, together with, beyond, above, over, by, on to, towards, to, against.
עַפְעַפַּ֣י  my  eyelids  [is] 
Parse: Noun, mdc, first person common singular
Root: עַפְעַפַּיִם  
Sense: eyelid.
צַלְמָֽוֶת  the  shadow  of  death 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: צַלְמָוֶת  
Sense: death-shadow, deep shadow, deep darkness, shadow of death.