Job 30:18

By the great force [of my disease] is my garment changed,.... Either the colour of it, through the purulent matter from his ulcers running down upon it, or penetrating through it; or by reason of it

And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me. Job's outward calamities affect his mind. Poured out - in irrepressible complaints (Psalms 42:4; Joshua 7:5). Verse 17.

My disease is so strong and prevalent, that it breaks forth every where in my body, in such plenty of purulent and filthy matter, that it infects and discolours my very garments. Others, By the great power of God my garment is changed. In both these translations the words, of disease, and of God, are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied by the translators. But the words are by some not untruly nor unfitly rendered thus, without any supplement, With great force my garment is changed; for so this verb is used, . So the sense is, I cannot shift or put off my garment without great strength and difficulty; the reason whereof is rendered in the following words. It bindeth me about; it cleaveth fast to me, being glued by that filthy matter issuing from my sores. As the collar of my coat; as my collar girdeth in and cleaveth to my neck. He alludes to the fashion of the Eastern outward garments, which were seamless, and all of a piece, and had a straight mouth at the top, which was brought over the head, and contracted and fastened close about the neck.

Job 30:18 By the great force [of my disease] is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.Ver. 18. By the great force of my disease is my garment changed] sc. Sudore, cruore, sanie, sanguine, By the matter that my disease forceth outward in boils and botches, is my garment (which once was decoris et magistratus insigne, the ensign of my authority) utterly stained and spoiled, loathsome to myself, and noisome to others, Totum cruentum et sordidatum (Merc.). Every one (say some chemists) hath his own balsam within him; his own bane it is sure he hath. Physicians hold that in every two years there is such store of ill humours and excrements engendered in the body, that a vessel of one hundred ounces will scarce contain them. Now if these, by God’ s appointment (for he is the great centurion, Matthew 8:9, who hath all diseases at his beck and call), break outward, what an ulcerous leper and lazar must that man needs be! This was Job’ s case, and Munster’ s, who called his sores Gemmas, et preciosa Dei ornamenta, God’ s gems and jewels, wherewith he decketh those whom he loveth; and King Philip’ s, of Spain, who, besides many other diseases, had ingentem puris ex ulceribus redundantiam, quae binas indies scutellas divite paedore impleret, abundance of filthy matter issuing out of his sores, insomuch as that no change of clothes, or art of physicians, could keep him from being devoured by lice and vermin thereby engendered (Carol. Scriban. Instit. Princip. cap. 20). It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat] It is become so stiff and starky, that it wrings me and hurts me, as an uneasy collar girds and gripes a man’ s neck; as the edge of my coat it girds me, so Broughton readeth it. Beza rendereth this latter part of the verse thus: He (God) compasseth me about as the collar of my coat. Piscator, the whole thus: By the greatness of his (God’ s) strength (which he putteth forth in scourging me with diseases), my garment changeth itself (putteth upon, as it were, another garment of scabs and scurf), as the mouth of my coat, he (God) girdeth me; i.e. Morbo premit corpus meum, he pincheth my body with diseases. But the former reading is better.

(18) My garment changed.—Some render “By His (i.e., God’s) great power the garment (of my skin) is disfigured;” and others, “With great effort must my garment be changed because of the sores to which it clings? It bindeth me about as closely as the collar of my coat.”

Verse 18. Is my garment changed] There seem to be here plain allusions to the effect of his cruel disease; the whole body being enveloped with a kind of elephantine hide, formed by innumerable incrustations from the ulcerated surface. It bindeth me about] There is now a new kind of covering to my body, formed by the effects of this disease; and it is not a garment which I can cast off; it is as closely attached to me as the collar of my coat. Or, my disease seizes me as a strong armed man; it has throttled me, and cast me in the mud. This is probably an allusion to two persons struggling: the stronger seizes the other by the throat, brings him down, and treads him in the dirt.

18. The verse is obscure. the great force of my disease] Or, by his great power; i. e. God’s power, put forth in Job’s afflictions. my garment changed] lit. disguised or disfigured. it bindeth me] The meaning may be: it clingeth to me like the neck of my inner garment. The reference is supposed to be to his emaciated condition; his outer garment hangs on him disfigured, clinging to him like the neck or opening of the close-fitting inner tunic. The connexion and the phrase “by His great power,” i. e. the power that causes intolerable agonies, might suggest that the reference in the verse is to Job’s writhing under his pains till the clothes are twisted tightly about him.

By the great force of my disease - The words “of my disease” are not in the Hebrew.

18. Garment changed — Figuratively, for skin which by “great (divine) power” is marred, disfigured so that he could scarcely be recognized; “the whole body being enveloped with a kind of elephantine