Job 17:1-16

4. Yet his condition is such that his hope will soon go with him to the grave. (Job 17:1-16)

TEXT 17:1-16

My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct,
The grave is ready for me.

2 Surely there are mockers with me,

And mine eye dwelleth upon their provocation.

3 Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thy self;

Who is there that will strike hands with me?

4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding:

Therefore shalt thou not exalt them.

5 He that denounceth his friends for a prey,

Even the eyes of his children shall fail.

6 But he hath made me a byword of the people;

And they spit in my face.

7 Mine eye also is dim my reason of sorrow,

And all my members are as a shadow.

8 Upright men shall be astonished at this,

And the innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.

9 Yet shall the righteous hold on his way.

And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.

10 But as for you all, come on now again;

And I shall not find a wise man among you.

11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off,

Even the thoughts of my heart.

12 They change the night into day:

The light, say they, is near unto the darkness.

13 If I look for Sheol as my house;

If I have spread my couch in the darkness;

14 If I have said to corruption, Thou art my father;

To the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister;

15 Where then is my hope?

And as for my hope, who shall see it?

16 It shall go down to the bars of Sheol,

When once there is rest in the dust.

COMMENT 17:1-16

Job 17:1Job sees his vindication in heaven, not on earth where his condition is hopeless. To him, death is inevitable, but his estrangement from God is not permanent. Speaking under intense emotional strain, he gasps that my spirit (ruach) is consumed, my days are extinct (za-'akextinguished, snuffed out). The grave (instead of plural, we take this as singular with enclitic particle -m) is all ready for me.

Job 17:2The verse begins with a formula introducing an oathI swear that (as in Job 31:36)there are mockers around me. The noun is abstract, which yields the meaning of mockery (Brown, Driver, and Briggsgive truly mockery surrounded me). Eliphaz's illusory promises of Job's restoration Job adjudges to be mockeries.

Job 17:3The LXX omits Job 17:3 b to Job 17:5a. The giving and taking of pledges was common practice, and the risk was greatGenesis 38:17-20; Exodus 22:26; Deuteronomy 24:6-17; Proverbs 6:1; Proverbs 11:15; Proverbs 17:18; Proverbs 22:26; and Eccl. 29:14-20. The striking of the hand ratified the pledge. Job is asking God, not his friends, to ratify a pledgesee Hebrews 6:13 ff.

Job 17:4The verse answers the question found in the second line of Job 17:3. The suffix their attached to the word translated heart means that Job is referring to the three friends. He appeals to God (the who of Job 17:3) since his friends have deprived him of insight. In the great temple hymn book, Psalms 13:3-5; Psalms 30:2; Psalms 37:19; and Psalms 41:11, we read of the common prayer of the innocent sufferer that his foes not be allowed to triumph over him. The friends-' hands have not been raised to strike a pledge or guarantee, until Job's innocence can be established. No one will risk providing Job's bail until his trial is arranged. Job is left alone. God is responsible for Job's condition and his friends-' lack of understanding.

Job 17:5This is a very cryptic verse. The K. J. V. follows the old Jewish interpreters in taking heleq in sense of flattery or smooth. The translation of the A. V. He that denounceth connects the root of the Hebrew word to divide or share and assumes the same meaning as in Jeremiah 20:10. The imagery of this verse is rather simple, though the grammar is not. It means that Job's friends are represented as turning against him for no higher motive than an informer's share of his property. The second line asserts that their children will suffer for their lack of compassion. In Job 17:4, Job declares that God would not permit his friends to triumph, and he asserts that their treacherous behavior will negatively affect their offspringJob 6:27 and Job 13:7-11.

Job 17:6God is referred to in the third personHe has made me an object of scorn of the neighboring people (lit. peoples-'ammim). Culturally, the bitterest insult and expression of contempt is to spit in someone's faceJob 30:10; Isaiah 1:6; Matthew 26:6; Matthew 27:30. (The K. J. V. follows Rashi, who mistakenly identifies Topheth with top.)[190]

[190] See remarks by E. J. Kissane, The Book of Job (Dublin: Browne and Nolan, 1939), p. 104.

Job 17:7The verb employed here expresses eyesight dimming with ageGenesis 27:1; Deuteronomy 34:7. Here grief causes the dim eyesightPsalms 6:8. Job's body has deteriorated to a skeleton.[191]

[191] See the suggested emendation of N. Sarna, Journal of Jewish Studies, 6, 1955, 108-110.

Job 17:8Righteous men are deeply perplexed when they see what is happening to me. The more they observe, the more indignant they become.[192] Righteous men are appalled, same verb found in Isaiah 52:14 as astonished, while the innocent stirs himself up against (verb means arouse self to excitementpleasurable in Job 31:29; here it is negative excitement) the prosperity of the godless, i.e., unrighteous.

[192] Job 17:8-10 are removed by some editors, but see Dhorme, Job, p. 248-51, for defense of their integrity; note Pope, Jobrejection and reasons for so doing, p. 130.

Job 17:9Job taunts his friends. He contradicts EliphazJob 15:4. Though he cannot intellectually resolve the moral anomaly of the universe, the righteous man will hold to that which is right. Neither mystery nor anomaly will cause him to abandon the path of righteousness.[193] Blommerde well sums up the verse because of the misery which has befallen the just Job, the righteous are astonished. This is against all rules; they have to cling to their force, to defend themselves against this trial of their faith.[194]

[193] Delitzsch, Job, Vol. I, 300, compares these words to a rocket which shoots above

[194] See the indispensable, though technical, work of A. C. M. Blommerde, Northwest Semitic Grammar and Job, Biblica & Orientalia, 22, 1969, on this verse; also on the parallelism between derek and -omes; see M. Dahood, Psalms, Vol. I, Psalms 1:1; and Vol. II, Psalms 67:3.

Job 17:10Job challenges his friends to renew their attack on him. Your unsympathetic words will only expose your unfeeling folly. Repetition of their old words will not convince Job of their validity. Their assaults on him fail once more.

Job 17:11The verse reflects Job's deep emotions. Convulsed with fear, Job acknowledges that death is near. His plans or purposes (Zechariah 8:15; Proverbs 2:11; Proverbs 8:12) are thwarted. Plans shatterednow what? The literary form here is problematic, but could very well express Job's heightening of his emotion-charged speech. Prodding ever deeper into his inner self, Job cries out that even his desires (Heb. root yaras-' or -arastranslated as thoughts in A. V.) are destroyed.

Job 17:12This verse does not appear in earliest LXX texts. Job's mockers distress him so that his nights turn into days. Sleepless nights and distress-filled days add up to dark despair. (Pope's comments on this verse that it is incompatible with context is indefensible; compare with Dhorme's defense.) Is light near to brighten Job's darkness before dawn?

Job 17:13His morbid preoccupation with death returns in this verse and continues through Job 17:16. He is resigned to death without any hope, even in the time of abandonment. Is Sheol the best Job can anticipate?[195]

[195] See N. J. Tromp, Primitive Conceptions of Death and the Nether World in the Old Testament (Rome: Biblica et Orientalia, 21, 1969); and my essay Death Be Not Proud in my Seer, Savior, and the Saved (College Press, 1972 ed.) for Old Testament data, pp. 366ff.

Job 17:14Job speaks to corruption (Heb. rootact the tragic darkness of the book, lighting it up suddenly, although only for a short time. corruptly) as though it is his origin and destiny.[196] Job feels the closest kinship with corruptionEzekiel 19:4; Ezekiel 19:8; Job 33:18; Job 33:22; Job 33:28; and Psalms 16:10.

[196] See E. F. Sutcliffe, The Old Testament and the Future Life (London, 1946), pp. 76ff.

Job 17:15His prospects are poor; thus he predicts the ultimate end of his hopelessness. He has no hope of the future prosperity, which his friends have suggested.

Job 17:16The only ones who will see his hope will go down to Sheol with him. Note that even here Job is not presenting extinction, only a less than noble destiny for the righteous. The bars probably stand for the gates of Sheol. Job is here asserting that his last hope for a happy and prosperous life will be carried to the grave. Only in Sheol does he have a future. Though the Hebrew noun rest is translated so in A. V., probably the meaning of the second line of this verse is best described by R. S. V.Shall we descend together into the dust.