Their appearance is now blacker than coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaves to their bones; it is withered, it has become like a dry stick.
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Coals. Hebrew, "blackness. "Septuagint, "soot. "(Haydock)
The people were naturally brown. Fasting and distress cause them to turn black, chap. v. 10., and Joel ii. 6. (Calmet)
They were so changed, that old acquaintances knew not one another. (Worthington)
Here is considered the shame following from their knowledge, as to a change of color, or complexion. As expressed in Verse 8: "Now their visage is blacker than soot, they are not reco~ized in the streets; their skin has shriveled upon their bones, it has become as dry as wood." That is, due to a deprivation as to a shriveling of their skin, as said: "their skin has shriveled upon their bones."
As the prophet Nahum declares: "anguish is on all loins, all faces grow pale! Where is the lions' den, the cave of the young lions where the lion brought his prey, where his cubs were, with none to disturb?" (Nah: 2:10-11). And Job says: "my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh." (Job: 7:5).
