1 "My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me. 2 Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation. 3 "Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me? 4 For you have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore you shall not exalt them. 5 He who denounces his friends for a prey, Even the eyes of his children shall fail. 6 "But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face. 7 My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow. 8 Upright men shall be astonished at this. The innocent shall stir up himself against the godless. 9 Yet shall the righteous hold on his way. He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger. 10 But as for you all, come on now again; I shall not find a wise man among you. 11 My days are past, my plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart. 12 They change the night into day, saying 'The light is near' in the presence of 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, 'You are my father;' to the worm, 'My mother,' and 'my sister;' 15 where then is my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it? 16 Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?"
Job complains of the injustice of his friends, and compares his present state of want and wo with his former honor and affluence, Job 17:1-6. God's dealings with him will ever astonish upright men; yet the righteous shall not be discouraged, but hold on his way, Job 17:7-9. Asserts that there is not a wise man among his friends, and that he has no expectation but of a speedy death, Job 17:10-16.
INTRODUCTION TO 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; 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; 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; that he had nothing but the grave in view, which, and its attendants, he had made very familiar with him, Job 17:13; 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.
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.