Mine eye is dim by reason of sorrow - Schultens supposes that this refers to his external appearance in general, as being worn down, exhausted, "defaced" by his many troubles; but it seems rather to mean that his eyes failed on account of weeping.

And all my members are as a shadow - "I am a mere skeleton, I am exhausted and emaciated by my sufferings." It is common to speak of persons who are emaciated by sickness or famine as mere shadows. Thus, Livy (L. 21:40) says, Effigies, imo, "umbrce hominum;" fame, frigore, illuvie, squalore enecti, contusi, debilitati inter saxa rupesque. So Aeschylus calls Oedipus - Οἰδίπου σκιαν Oidipou skian - the shadow of Oedipus.

Mine eye also is dim - Continual weeping impairs the sight; and indeed any affliction that debilitates the frame generally weakens the sight in the same proportion.

All my members are as a shadow - Nothing is left but skin and bone. I am but the shadow of my former self.

Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow,.... Through excessive weeping, and the abundance of tears he shed, so that he had almost lost his eyesight, or however it was greatly weakened and impaired by that means, which is often the case, see Psalm 6:7;

and all my members are as a shadow; his flesh was consumed off his bones, there were nothing left scarcely but skin and bone; he was a mere anatomy, and as thin as a lath, as we commonly say of a man that is quite worn away, as it were; is a walking shadow, has scarce any substance in him, but is the mere shadow of a man; the Targum interprets it of his form, splendour, and countenance, which were like a shadow; some interpret it "my thoughts" (t), and understand it of the formations of his mind, and not of his body, which were shadows, empty, fleeting, and having no consistence in them through that sorrow that possessed him.

(t) "cogitationes meae", Pagninus, Bolducius, Codurcus, so Ben Gersom.

Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.

17:7 As a shadow - I am grown so poor and thin, that I am not to be called a man, but the shadow of a man.

my members: or, my thoughts

7. (Ps 6:7; 31:9; De 34:7).

members-literally, "figures"; all the individual members being peculiar forms of the body; opposed to "shadow," which looks like a figure without solidity.

17:1-9 Job reflects upon the harsh censures his friends had passed upon him, and, looking on himself as a dying man, he appeals to God. Our time is ending. It concerns us carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for eternity. We see the good use the righteous should make of Job's afflictions from God, from enemies, and from friends. Instead of being discouraged in the service of God, by the hard usage this faithful servant of God met with, they should be made bold to proceed and persevere therein. Those who keep their eye upon heaven as their end, will keep their feet in the paths of religion as their way, whatever difficulties and discouragements they may meet with.