Job 17 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Job 17

Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?

17:1   “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
    the graveyard is ready for me.
2   Surely there are mockers about me,
    and my eye dwells on their provocation.
3   “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
    who is there who will put up security for me?
4   Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
    therefore you will not let them triumph.
5   He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
    the eyes of his children will fail.
6   “He has made me a byword of the peoples,
    and I am one before whom men spit.
7   My eye has grown dim from vexation,
    and all my members are like a shadow.
8   The upright are appalled at this,
    and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
9   Yet the righteous holds to his way,
    and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
10   But you, come on again, all of you,
    and I shall not find a wise man among you.
11   My days are past; my plans are broken off,
    the desires of my heart.
12   They make night into day:
    ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’¹
13   If I hope for Sheol as my 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 Sheol?
    Shall we descend together into the dust?”²

Footnotes

[1] 17:12 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
[2] 17:16 Or Will they go down to the bars of Sheol? Is rest to be found together in the dust?

Commentary

v1-7: Job's personal prayer, reflecting his personal suffering. No man identified with him in his trials. His friends had not brought the truth of God for him. The man once respected is now despised.

v8-9: His desire is that others might learn from his experiences (as in 16.18). In the conflict between righteous and unrighteous, the righteous are teachable.

v10-16: Job is now very low, see 16.22. Life is short, death is imminent, hope is gone. This is perhaps the lowest point of his experience, but his next words (in chapter 19) contain a stronger note of hope.

This is perhaps the lowest point of his experience, but his next words (in chapter 19) contain a stronger note of hope.

Chapters 16 and 17 point us to Christ's sufferings, as He tasted death for us. Ultimately He defeated the final enemy, death.