Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
The verse stands within Job chapter 17 as part of the debate between Job and his three friends concerning his afflictions. There Job answers them by protesting his innocence while longing for death.
Sorrow has dimmed his eyesight and left his whole body weakened and shadowlike. Under the weight of grief his sight grows dim and his entire frame is reduced to a shadow, wasted and worn down. He suffers pain and burns with fever until all his members have become as a shadow.
That wasting condition by itself does not prove that his affliction is a sign of God's displeasure, for his friends generally spoke truths but misapplied them to his case. Such affliction is usually misunderstood, and those who are healthy and prosperous naturally respond with contempt and suspicion rather than with help and consolation. By condemnation and abuse they greatly increase the sufferer's sorrow. Only rarely, one among a thousand, can fully enter into his trouble to give the counsel and sympathy that are needed, so the afflicted must instead be met with pity, with strengthening words that assuage grief, and with the compassionate mercy of the Redeemer.
The verse stands within Job chapter 17 as part of the debate between Job and his three friends concerning his afflictions. There Job answers them by protesting his innocence while longing for death.
Sorrow has dimmed his eyesight and left his whole body weakened and shadowlike. Under the weight of grief his sight grows dim and his entire frame is reduced to a shadow, wasted and worn down. He suffers pain and burns with fever until all his members have become as a shadow.
That wasting condition by itself does not prove that his affliction is a sign of God's displeasure, for his friends generally spoke truths but misapplied them to his case. Such affliction is usually misunderstood, and those who are healthy and prosperous naturally respond with contempt and suspicion rather than with help and consolation. By condemnation and abuse they greatly increase the sufferer's sorrow. Only rarely, one among a thousand, can fully enter into his trouble to give the counsel and sympathy that are needed, so the afflicted must instead be met with pity, with strengthening words that assuage grief, and with the compassionate mercy of the Redeemer.