You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
Job has stopped arguing with his friends and started arguing with God, and his evidence is his own body. He has just called himself clay. Now he points to skin, flesh, bones and sinews as proof of careful work, and asks why his Maker would undo it.
An argument built from his own frame
Job's plea is not that he matters, but that he is God's handiwork. Ridout lines up the questions Job puts to his Maker.
Samuel RidoutHe will ask God why He contends with him this way — is it any pleasure to Him to despise the work of His own hands, and to let the wicked go unpunished? Does God judge according to the flesh, failing to see the inward parts? … Will He take the frail being His hands shaped with such skill — like the delicate clots of milk, like the "curiously wrought" substance of skin and flesh, bones and sinews (see Ps. 139:15-16) — and bring them back to the dust they came from? God has given him breath and life, and yet has hidden enmity in His heart against His own handiwork!
("Curiously wrought" is the older wording of Psalm 139:15; the ESV has "intricately woven.")
Made as clay, not as an angel
Job's complaint has a sharp edge: God chose the material. He made a creature who could be hurt this way, and He knew it in advance.
William Kelly"Remember, I beg you, that you have made me as the clay." He had not made him as an angel; He had not made him as one who was above this kind of suffering. "Have you not poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese? You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and favour, and your care has preserved my spirit. And these things you have hidden in your heart." "You had that in your heart before I was born. You meant me to come into this, and I do not know why."
Kelly notes that Job could truthfully say he was not wicked — and that this was exactly his problem:
William KellyIt was his own satisfaction in that poor reflection of righteousness which the best of men can have here below in himself, but which is no ground at all to stand on before God.
The "me" inside the clothing
The verse says God clothed me with skin and flesh — so the "me" is something other than the skin and flesh. One writer traces this through the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament. It keeps separate words for soul and spirit inside this one chapter.
The Christian's Friend"My soul (psuche) is weary of my life. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul (psuche)." (v. 1.) "Your care has preserved my spirit (pneuma)." (v. 12.) "You have clothed me" (the man Job; that is, both soul and spirit) "with skin and flesh, and have fenced me with bones and sinews." (v. 11.)
(Older translations read "fenced me with bones and sinews"; the ESV has "knit me together.")
A garment that comes off
If the body is a garment, wearing it is temporary. The same writer follows that thought to the hour of death.
The Christian's FriendThe body is the man's house or tent on earth. It is the home of both spirit and soul. So while he is in it, he is said to be "at home in the body." While in the body he is also said to be "clothed." (Job 10:11.) But he leaves the body at death. … The body alone is the part of man that is mortal.
The garment worn again
Job's despair in this chapter is not his last word. The same man who describes God knitting his body together also expects to see God in his flesh. What death dissolves is not the whole man.
The Christian's FriendJob … knew himself as one who would exist after death. He speaks of that event, and of the time when the worm will have destroyed this outward visible frame. He says, "yet in my flesh I shall see God." (Job 19:26.) That is: I, the man Job, the whole workmanship of God, "spirit, soul, and body," "in my flesh I shall see God." Death destroys only this outer shell, the dwelling that holds both spirit and soul. And even that destruction, for man, is only for a time.
Ridout is blunt about the state Job is in. Job "lets himself loose in the dark despair which has settled down upon his soul" — yet he pours it all out before God, not away from Him.
Summary
- Made. God chose the material — clay, not angel — and formed a creature who could suffer like this. That is what Job cannot get past.
- Clothed. Skin and flesh are the garment, bones and sinews the frame. The "me" wearing them is the man himself, soul and spirit.
- Skilled. God wove every thread of that garment with skill. So Job asks why He would undo His own work.
- Complained. Job argues from God's past kindness to what now feels like cruelty. He says all of it to God's face.
- Reclothed. Death lays the garment down, but only the outer shell dissolves. Job still expects that in his flesh he will see God.