Job 17:2

2 Certainly, mockers are around me. My eyes are focused on their opposition.

Job 17:2 Meaning and Commentary

Job 17:2

[Are there] not mockers with me?
&c.] Meaning not irreligious persons, such as make a mock at sin, a jest of religion, a laugh at good men, sneer at the doctrines and ordinances of God, and scoff at things future, as the coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and a future judgment; with whom it is very uncomfortable to be, as well as with any sort of profane men, and such there were no doubt in Job's time; but he seems to design his friends, by whom be thought himself mocked, and who were, as he imagined, scorners of him, ( Job 12:4 ) ( 16:20 ) ; and therefore for this reason entreats his case might be heard, and his cause pleaded:

and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
or "lodge all night" F17; his sense is, that they were continually provoking him with their words, their scoffs and jeers, their censures and calumnies, and the weak reasons and arguments they made use of to support their charges and suspicions; these dwelt upon his mind not only in the daytime but in the night, so that he could not get a wink of sleep for them; their words were so teasing and distressing, and they acted such a cruel part to him, and stuck so close to him, and hung upon his thoughts, that he could not get clear of them in the night season; but his mind ran upon them, which kept him waking, that he could not close his eyelids for thinking of them.


FOOTNOTES:

F17 (Nlt) "pernoctat", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, Schmidt, Michaelis, Schultens.

Job 17:2 In-Context

1 "My spirit is broken. My days have been snuffed out. The cemetery [is waiting] for me.
2 Certainly, mockers are around me. My eyes are focused on their opposition.
3 Please guarantee my bail yourself. Who else will guarantee it with a handshake?
4 You have closed their minds so that they cannot understand. That is why you will not honor them.
5 (Whoever turns in friends to get their property should have his children's eyesight fail.)
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