Job 7:5

with worms and clods of dust His ulcers bred worms; and the hard earthy-like crust of his sores he calls lumps of dust.

is broken, and become loathsome Rather, my skin closes and breaks afresh the allusion being to the alternate gathering and running of his sores, which went on continually.

Job 7:1-5 describe the pain of life; the following verses, 6 10, its brevity and utter extinction in death. There is no break, however, in the connexion, for it is the exhausting pains described in Job 7:3 that naturally suggest the hopeless brevity of his life. Job has been thought inconsistent in complaining that life being evil is also brief. But in his view life itself is the highest good; it should be free of evil and prolonged. And his complaint is that human life has been made by God bothevil and brief; cf. ch. Job 14:1 seq.