everything that was hitherto his power and pride קרני (lxx, Targ.); all this he has together at the same time injured, i.e., represented as come to destruction, by covering his head with dust and ashes.
Verse 16
The construction of the Chethib is like 1Sa 4:15, of the Keri on the other hand like Lam 1:20; Lam 2:11 (where the same is said of מעי, viscera mea); חמרמר is a passive intensive form (Ges. §55, 3), not in the signification: they are completely kindled (lxx συγκέκανται, Jer. intumuit, from the חמר, Arab. chmr, which signifies to ferment), but: they are red all over (from חמר, Arab. ḥmr, whence the Alhambra, as a red building, takes its name), reddened, i.e., from weeping; and this has so weakened them, that the shadow of death (vid., on Job 10:21.) seems to rest upon his eyelids; they are therefore sad even to the deepest gloom. Thus exceedingly miserable is his state and appearance, although he is no disguised hypocrite, who might need to do penance in sackcloth and ashes, and shed tears of penitence without any solace. Hirz. explains על as a preposition: by the absence of evil in my hands; but Job 16:17 and Job 16:17 are substantival clauses, and על is therefore just, like Isa 53:9, a conjunction (= על־אשׁר). His hands are clean from wrong-doing, free from violence and oppression; his prayer is pure, pura; as Merc. observes, ex puritate cordis et fidei. From the feeling of the strong contrast between his piety and his being stigmatized as an evil-doer by such terrible suffering, - from this extreme contrast which has risen now to its highest in his consciousness of patient endurance of suffering, the lofty thoughts of the next strophe take their rise.
Verses 18-22
Job 16:18-22 18 Oh earth, cover thou not my blood,
And let my cry find no resting-place!! - 19 Even now behold in heaven is my Witness,
And One who acknowledgeth me is in the heights!
