Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageNow their faces are blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shrunk upon their bones; it has dried up like wood.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GNow their faces are darker than soot; they are unrecognised in the streets. Their skin has shrivelled upon their bones; it has become dry as wood.
KJV
King James VersionTheir visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleBut now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.
Footnotes
Tzaphad ("to shrivel/shrink") is a hapax legomenon — it occurs only here in the entire Hebrew Bible, suggesting the poet is straining at the edge of language to describe unprecedented horror. Shachor ("soot/blackness") — the extreme darkening of the skin describes the combined effects of starvation, dehydration, and prolonged exposure: these are bodies being consumed from within. The deliberate contrast with v.7's palette of snow, milk, coral, and sapphire is among the most controlled and devastating reversals in biblical poetry.
