Job 17:3

The verse reads,

Give a pledge now! be surety for me with thee!

Who is there (else) that will strike hands with me?

Lay down now i. e. lay or put in a pledge. Nowis not temporal, but a particle of importunate entreaty.

put me in a surety As above, be surety for me with thee. The first expression, give a pledge, is more fully expressed by the second, be surety for me with thee; and the question, Who (else) will strike handswith me? refers to the gesture or action by which suretyship was undertaken, viz. by striking hands.; cf. Proverbs 6:1; Proverbs 11:15 (margin), Proverbs 17:18; Proverbs 22:26. First, Job beseeches God to become surety for him; that is something to be done in the present. But second, a suretyship necessarily refers to the future; though undertaken in the present it is to be fulfilled later. This is expressed by the words with thee, i. e. with God. Job beseeches God to undertake now that He will cause his innocence to be yet acknowledged with God. The same division of God into two parties, God who persecutes Job and wrongs him and God who becomes surety for Job and undertakes to see his cause righted with God, appears here as before in Job 16:21; see something similar Hebrews 7:22. The phrase be surety for meis translated undertake for me, Isaiah 38:14, cf. Psalms 119:122; and it might be made a question whether the suppliant went so far as to expect any visible or audible sign from heaven.