Job 1:20

which actions were usually performed together in times of distress and sorrow, see Ge 37:34; and this was no doubt a voluntary action of his, like that of the king of Nineveh and his subjects Jon 3:5; though some have thought that Job was so reduced that he had no clothes to wear, and was obliged to put on such coarse raiment, which is not probable; and it seems that he put this next to his skin, which must be very uneasy to one that had been used to such soft apparel, as it seems did also the kings of Israel in time of mourning, 1Ki 21:27; it is not only observed by several Jewish writers, that the word here used in the Arabic language signifies "skin", as we render it, as Aben Ezra, Ben Melech, and others; but the skin of the wound, the thin skin which is drawn over a wound when it is healing, as Ben Gersom and Bar Tzemach; which, being tender, must be very unfit to bear such rough raiment upon it; nay, Schultens observes, that the Arabic word more properly signifies "torn skin" , as Job's skin must be full of ruptures through the boils and ulcers upon him; he himself says, that his "skin [was] broken, and become loathsome"