Job's lament over his physical suffering includes this verb describing how his skin 'has become black.' Whether from disease, heat, or the ash heap where he sits scraping himself, Job's appearance has drastically changed. Blackened skin signals deterioration, pain, and social alienation. The verb belongs to a word family associated with blackness, giving Hebrew multiple ways to describe darkening—whether of skin, dawn (paradoxically), or other phenomena. Physical transformation externalizes internal anguish.