Job 17:6-16

6 “He has made me ¹a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit.

7 My ²eye has grown dim from vexation, and all my members are like ³a shadow.

8 The upright are ⁴appalled at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.

9 Yet the righteous holds to his way, and he who has ⁵clean hands grows stronger and stronger.

10 But you, ⁶come on again, all of you, and I shall not find a wise man among you.

11 My ⁷days are past; my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart.

12 They ⁸make night into day: ‘The light, ’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness. ’ ^[a]

13 If I hope for ⁹Sheol as ¹⁰my house, if I make my bed in darkness,

14 if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father, ’and to the worm, ‘My mother, ’ or ‘My sister, ’

15 where then is my hope? Who will see my hope?

16 Will it go down to the bars of ¹¹Sheol? Shall we ¹²descend together ¹³into the dust? ”

Job 17:6-16 Meaning and Commentary

\\INTRODUCTION JOB 17\\

In this chapter Job not only enlarges upon the reason given in the
preceding chapter, why he was desirous of an advocate with God, and one
to plead his cause with him for him, Job 17:1; but adds other reasons
taken from the usage of his friends, from the impossibility of any but
a divine Person being his surety; and of anyone being provided and
appointed as such but by God himself; from the insufficiency of his
friends to judge of his cause, and from the condition and circumstances
he was in, Job 17:2-7; then he takes notice of the effects his present
case would have on good men, that though they might be astonished at
it, they would be filled with indignation against hypocrites, and would
not be moved and stumbled by his afflictions to apostatize from and
desert the good ways of God, Job 17:8,9; after which he addresses his
friends, and either calls upon them to renew the dispute with him, or
repent of their notions, and join with him in his sentiments,
Job 17:10; and lastly describes his state and circumstances, according
to his apprehension of things, observing the shortness of his life, and
the darkness of the dispensation he was under, through one thing and
another, Job 17:11,12; that he had nothing but the grave in view,
which, and its attendants, he had made very familiar with him,
Job 17:13,14; and that he had no hope of restoration to a better
condition, as to his outward circumstances, and that he, and his hopes
his friends would have him entertain, and they also, would go down
together to the grave, and there should lie in the dust, and rest
together till the morning of the resurrection, Job 17:15,16.

Cross References

• 1. 17:6 ch. 30:9; Deut. 28:37; [Ps. 44:14; 69:11]
• 2. 17:7 [Ps. 6:7; 31:9]
• 3. 17:7 See ch. 14:2
• 4. 17:8 Isa. 52:14
• 5. 17:9 See ch. 22:30
• 6. 17:10 ch. 6:29
• 7. 17:11 ch. 7:6; 9:25
• 8. 17:12 [ch. 11:17]
• 9. 17:13 See ch. 21:13
• 10. 17:13 [Eccles. 12:5]
• 11. 17:16 [See ver. 13 above]
• 12. 17:16 [ch. 3:17-19]
• 13. 17:16 ch. 21:26; 40:13

Footnotes

• [a] 17:12 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain