Job 16:16

On my eyelids is the shadow of death - Death is now fast approaching me; already his shadow is projected over me.

My face is foul with weeping - Wemyss, "swelled." Noyes, "red." Good, "tarnished." Luther, "ist geschwollen" - is swelled. So Jerome. The Septuagint, strangely enough, ἡ γαστήρ μον συνκέκαυται, κ. τ. λ. hē gastēr mou sunkekautai, etc. "my belly is burned with weeping." The Hebrew word (חמר châmar) means to boil up, to ferment, to foam. Hence, it means to be red, and the word is often used in this sense in Arabic - from the idea of becoming heated or inflamed. Here it probably means either to be "swelled," as any thing does that "ferments," or to be "red" as if "heated" - the usual effect of weeping. The idea of being "defiled" is not in the word.

And on my eyelid; is the shadow of death - On the meaning of the word rendered "shadow of death," see the notes at Job 3:5. The meaning is, that darkness covered his eyes, and he felt that he was about to die. One of the usual indications of the approach of death is, that the sight fails, and everything seems to be dark. Hence, Homer so often describes death by the phrase, "and darkness covered his eyes;" or the form "a cloud of death covered his eyes" - θανάτου νέφος ὄσσε ἐκάλυψη thanatou nephos osse ekalupsē. The idea here is, that he experienced the indications of approaching death.