My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids [is] the shadow of death;
Ver. 16. My face is foul with weeping] Is swelled, saith the Vulgate. Is shrivelled up, say the Jewish doctors. Is doublely dirtied, so one rendereth it. So far was Job from stretching out his hand against God, and strengthening himself against the Almighty, as Elipbaz had charged him, Job 15:25, that he lay at God's feet as a suppliant, with blubbered and beslubbered cheeks; having furrows in his face, and icicles from his lips with continual weeping; yea, he had wept himself blind almost, for so it followeth,
And on mine eyelids is the shadow of death] i.e. Mine eyes do fail with tears, as Lamentations 2:11. Larga lacbrymarum copia aciem oculorum obstruente; they are even wasted away and sunk into my head, as in a dying man (Mercer). Much weeping spendeth the spirits, weakeneth the visive power, and sometimes blindeth, as it did Faustus (the son of Vortigern, king of this island, by his own daughter), who is said to have wept himself blind for the abominations of his parents. See David's tears and the effects thereof, Psalms 6:7; Psalms 38:10 .