Job 17:10

10 But come back [and try] again, all of you.[a] I will not find a wise man among you.

Job 17:10 Meaning and Commentary

Job 17:10

But as for you all, do ye return, and come now
This is an address to his three friends, all and everyone of them, who he perceived were nettled with his reply, and were either departing, or preparing for a rejoinder; and being conscious of his innocence, and satisfied of the goodness of his cause, and having nothing to fear from them, boldly challenges them to go on with the dispute; for though they were three to one, he was a match for them all; or else he calls upon them to turn and repent of what they had said to him, to relinquish the bad notions and ill opinion they had of him, and to retract their hard speeches and unjust censures, and return to a friendly and amicable conversation; or however, that they would come and sit down quietly, and patiently hear what he had further to say to them for their information and instruction, which they stood in great need of:

for I cannot find [one] wise [man] among you;
that took his case right, was capable of judging of it, and speaking pertinently to it, and of administering comfort to him in it; they were physicians, but not skilful ones; comforters, but miserable ones; had not the tongue of the learned, to speak a word in season; disputants, but wranglers, and knew not where the pinch of the controversy lay; and their arguments were weak and worthless, and their judgment and sense of things not deserving any regard, see ( 1 Corinthians 6:5 ) .

Job 17:10 In-Context

8 The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent are roused against the godless.
9 Yet the righteous person will hold to his way, and the one whose hands are clean will grow stronger.
10 But come back [and try] again, all of you. I will not find a wise man among you.
11 My days have slipped by; my plans have been ruined, even the things dear to my heart.
12 They turned night into day and [made] light [seem] near in the face of darkness.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Some Hb mss, LXX, Vg; other Hb mss read them
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