What Does Job 19:17 Mean?

'My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body.' Job's isolation extends to intimate relationships: his 'breath' (רוּחִי, ruchi) is 'strange' (זָרָה, zarah—alien, foreign) to his wife, despite entreaties for sake of 'children of mine own body' (בְּנֵי בִטְנִי, beney vitni). His disease makes him repulsive even to his wife. Some scholars suggest this refers to bad breath from disease; others see emotional alienation. Either way, marital intimacy is destroyed. Suffering isolates, breaking closest bonds. This anticipates Christ's 'My God, why hast thou forsaken me?' Total isolation, even from intimates, characterizes extreme suffering. Job's experience, though not salvific like Christ's, reflects suffering's alienating power.