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Commentary on Job 17 verses 1–9
Job's discourse is here somewhat broken and interrupted, and he passes suddenly from one thing to another, as is usual with men in trouble; but we may reduce what is here said to three heads: -
I. The deplorable condition which poor Job was now in, which he describes, to aggravate the great unkindness of his friends to him and to justify his own complaints. Let us see what his case was.
1.He was a dying man, Job 17:1. He had said (Job 16:22), "When a few years have come, I shall go that long journey." But here he corrects himself. "Why do I talk of years to come? Alas! I am just setting out on that journey, am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. My breath is already corrupt, or broken off; my spirits are spent; I am a gone man." It is good for every one of us thus to look upon ourselves as dying, and especially to think of it when we are sick. We are dying, that is, (1.) Our life is going; for the breath of life is going. It is continually going forth; it is in our nostrils (Isa 2:22), the door at which it entered (Gen 2:7); there it is upon the threshold, ready to depart. Perhaps Job's distemper obstructed his breathing, and short breath will, after a while, be no breath. Let the Anointed of the Lord be the breath of our nostrils, and let us get spiritual life breathed into us, and that breath will never be corrupted. (2.) Our time is ending: My days are extinct, are put out, as a candle which, from the first lighting, is continually wasting and burning down, and will by degrees burn out of itself, but may by a thousand accidents be extinguished. Such is life. It concerns us therefore carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for the days of eternity, which will never be extinct. (3.) We are expected in our long home: The graves are ready for me. But would not one grave serve? Yes, but he speaks of the sepulchres of his fathers, to which he must be gathered: "The graves where they are laid are ready for me also," graves in consort, the congregation of the dead. Wherever we go there is but a step between us and the grave. Whatever is unready, that is ready; it is a bed soon made. If the graves be ready for us, it concerns us to be ready for the graves. The graves for me (so it runs), denoting not only his expectation of death, but his desire of it. "I have done with the world, and have nothing now to wish for but a grave."
2.He was a despised man (Job 17:6): "He" (that is, Eliphaz, so some, or rather God, whom he all along acknowledges to be the author of his calamities) "has made me a byword of the people, the talk of the country, a laughing-stock to many, a gazing-stock to all; and aforetime (or to men's faces, publicly) I was as a tabret, that whoever chose might play upon." They made ballads of him; his name became a proverb; it is so still, As poor as Job. "He has now made me a byword," a reproach of men, whereas, aforetime, in my prosperity, I was as a tabret, deliciae humani generis - the darling of the human race, whom they were all pleased with. It is common for those who were honoured in their wealth to be despised in their poverty.
3.He was a man of sorrows, Job 17:7. He wept so much that he had almost lost his sight: My eye is dim by reason of sorrow, Job 16:16. The sorrow of the world thus works darkness and death. He grieved so much that he had fretted all the flesh away and become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones: "All my members are as a shadow. I have become so poor and thin that I am not to be called a man, but the shadow of a man."
II. The ill use which his friends made of his miseries. They trampled upon him, and insulted over him, and condemned him as a hypocrite, because he was thus grievously afflicted. Hard usage! Now observe,
1.How Job describes it, and what construction he puts upon their discourses with him. He looks upon himself as basely abused by them. (1.) They abused him with their foul censures, condemning him as a bad man, justly reduced thus and exposed to contempt, Job 17:2. "They are mockers, who deride my calamities, and insult over me, because I am thus brought low. They are so with me, abusing me to my face, pretending friendship in their visit, but intending mischief. I cannot get clear of them; they are continually tearing me, and they will not be wrought upon, either by reason or pity, to let fall the prosecution." (2.) They abused him too with their fair promises, for in them they did but banter him. He reckons them (Job 17:5) among those that speak flattery to their friends. They all came to mourn with him. Eliphaz began with a commendation of him, Job 4:3. They had all promised him that he would be happy if he would take their advice. Now all this he looked upon as flattery, and as designed to vex him so much the more. All this he calls their provocation, Job 17:2. They did what they could to provoke him and then condemned him for his resentment of it; but he thinks himself excusable when his eye continued thus in their provocation: it never ceased, and he never could look off it. Note, The unkindness of those that trample upon their friends in affliction, that banter and abuse them then, is enough to try, if not to tire, the patience even of Job himself.
2.How he condemns it. (1.) It was a sign that God had hidden their heart from understanding (Job 17:4), and that in this matter they were infatuated, and their wonted wisdom had departed from them. Wisdom is a gift of God, which he grants to some and withholds from others, grants at some times and withholds at other times. Those that are void of compassion are so far void of understanding. Where there is not the tenderness of a man one may question whether there be the understanding of a man. (2.) It would be a lasting reproach and diminution to them: Therefore shalt thou not exalt them. Those are certainly kept back from honour whose hearts are hidden from understanding. When God infatuates men he will abase them. Surely those who discover so little acquaintance with the methods of Providence shall not have the honour of deciding this controversy! That is reserved for a man of better sense and better temper, such a one as Elihu afterwards appeared to be. (3.) It would entail a curse upon their families. He that thus violates the sacred laws of friendship forfeits the benefit of it, not only for himself, but for his posterity: "Even the eyes of his children shall fail, and, when they look for succour and comfort from their own and their father's friends, they shall look in vain as I have done, and be as much disappointed as I am in you." Note, Those that wrong their neighbours may thereby, in the end, wrong their own children more than they are aware of.
3.How he appeals from them to God (Job 17:3): Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee, that is, "Let me be assured that God will take the hearing and determining of the cause into his own hands, and I desire no more. Let some one engage for God to bring on this matter." Thus those whose hearts condemn them not have confidence towards God, and can with humble and believing boldness beg of him to search and try them. Some make Job here to glance at the mediation of Christ, for he speaks of a surety with God, without whom he durst not appear before God, nor try his cause at his bar; for, though his friends' accusations of him were utterly false, yet he could not justify himself before God but in a mediator. Our English annotations give this reading of the verse: "Appoint, I pray thee, my surety with thee, namely, Christ who is with thee in heaven, and has undertaken to be my surety let him plead my cause, and stand up for me; and who is he then that will strike upon my hand?" that is, "Who dares then contend with me? Who shall lay any thing to my charge if Christ be an advocate for me?" Rom 8:32, Rom 8:33. Christ is the surety of the better testament (Heb 7:22), a surety of God's appointing; and, if he undertake for us, we need not fear what can be done against us.
III. The good use which the righteous should make of Job's afflictions from God, from his enemies, and from his friends, Job 17:8, Job 17:9. Observe here,
1.How the saints are described. (1.) They are upright men, honest and sincere, and that act from a steady principle, with a single eye. This was Job's own character (Job 1:1), and probably he speaks of such upright men especially as had been his intimates and associates. (2.) They are the innocent, not perfectly so, but innocence is what they aim at and press towards. Sincerity is evangelical innocency, and those that are upright are said to be innocent from the great transgression, Psa 19:13. (3.) They are the righteous, who walk in the way of righteousness. (4.) They have clean hands, kept clean from the gross pollutions of sin, and, when spotted with infirmities, washed with innocency, Psa 26:6.
2.How they should be affected with the account of Job's troubles. Great enquiry, no doubt, would be made concerning him, and every one would speak of him and his case; and what use will good people make of it? (1.) It will amaze them: Upright men shall be astonished at this; they will wonder to hear that so good a man as Job should be so grievously afflicted in body, name, and estate, that God should lay his hand so heavily upon him, and that his friends, who ought to have comforted him, should add to his grief, that such a remarkable saint should be such a remarkable sufferer, and so useful a man laid aside in the midst of his usefulness; what shall we say to these things? Upright men, though satisfied in general that God is wise and holy in all he does, yet cannot but be astonished at such dispensations of Providence, paradoxes which will not be unfolded till the mystery of God shall be finished. (2.) It will animate them. Instead of being deterred from and discouraged in the service of God, by the hard usage which this faithful servant of God met with, they shall be so much the more emboldened to proceed and persevere in it. That which was St. Paul's care (Th1 3:3) was Job's, that no good man should be moved, either from his holiness or his comfort, by these afflictions, that none should, for the sake hereof, think the worse of the ways or work of God. And that which was St. Paul's comfort was his too, that the brethren in the Lord would wax confident by his bonds, Phi 1:14. They would hereby be animated, [1.] To oppose sin and to confront the corrupt and pernicious inferences which evil men would draw from Job's sufferings, as that God has forsaken the earth, that it is in vain to serve him, and the like: The innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite, will not bear to hear this (Rev 2:2), but will withstand him to his face, will stir up himself to search into the meaning of such providences and study these hard chapters, that he may read them readily, will stir up himself to maintain religion's just but injured cause against all its opposers. Note, The boldness of the attacks which profane people make upon religion should sharpen the courage and resolution of its friends and advocates. It is time to stir when proclamation is made in the gate of the camp, Who is on the Lord's side? When vice is daring it is no time for virtue, through fear, to hide itself. [2.] To persevere in religion. The righteous, instead of drawing back, or so much as starting back, at this frightful spectacle, or standing still to deliberate whether he should proceed or no (allude to Sa2 2:23), shall with so much the more constancy and resolution hold on his way and press forward. "Though in me he foresees that bonds and afflictions abide him, yet none of these things shall move him," Act 20:24. Those who keep their eye upon heaven as their end will keep their feet in the paths of religion as their way, whatever difficulties and discouragements they meet with in it [3.] In order thereunto to grow in grace. He will not only hold on his way notwithstanding, but will grow stronger and stronger. By the sight of other good men's trials, and the experience of his own, he will be made more vigorous and lively in his duty, more warm and affectionate, more resolute and undaunted; the worse others are the better he will be; that which dismays others emboldens him. The blustering wind makes the traveller gather his cloak the closer about him and gird it the faster. Those that are truly wise and good will be continually growing wiser and better. Proficiency in religion is a good sign of sincerity in it.
I cannot say, in fact, that I receive mercy, which is the only privilege common to those who suffer. On the contrary, I am a laughingstock for the senseless; the righteous are frightened because of me. How can the faithful continue on his way?… “Let the faithful remain on his own way,” Job says, “and let him who is pure of heart take courage.” But how will a pure person keep his courage after these events happened in this manner against all hopes? Let us disregard what concerns me. How will others stand in the way of righteousness? Therefore I call you to a new judgment.
42. In this place, ‘the innocent’ is taken for the as yet imperfectly righteous, who, as yet but commencing in good ways, though he is not minded to do mischief to others, yet is not at all able himself to do things that are perfect; and because the hearts of the little ones, while they see the wicked flourishing in the present life, are set on fire with the brands of envy; (for a man the more envies others present good in proportion as he less despises it himself. Since of that which cannot be possessed by all men all of it together, what this one has would be so much lacking [‘desit’ al. ‘defit,’ or ‘deficit’] to the other.) Now ‘the innocent is kindled against the hypocrite,’ when even he who is not used to injure anyone, envies the glory of the dissembler. But if in this passage the innocent means any one perfect in goodness, ‘the innocent is moved against the hypocrite;’ when he both sees him flourishing, and contemns him and all his flourishing, and by preaching the things that are right plainly says that he ought to be despised by others, the more in proportion as he sees him eagerly in quest of things, which cannot abide with him for long.
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SUMMARY
Job 17:8 encapsulates Job's unwavering conviction that his profound and unjust suffering will not go unobserved or unaddressed by God. He prophesies a future moment when truly righteous individuals will be utterly appalled and morally incensed by his plight, prompting the innocent to actively confront and expose the deceitful and impious counsel of those who have falsely accused him. This declaration serves as a powerful testament to Job's tenacious faith in ultimate divine justice and the eventual vindication of the righteous, even amidst overwhelming despair and wrongful condemnation.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Job 17:8 powerfully employs Contrast as its primary literary device, setting the "upright" and "innocent" against the "hypocrite." This stark opposition highlights the moral chasm between true righteousness and deceptive piety. The verse also utilizes Anticipation or Foreshadowing, as Job, in his deep despair, projects a future vindication where his suffering will serve as a catalyst for moral awakening and action. There is an element of Irony in Job's declaration: his suffering, intended by his friends to prove his guilt, will instead expose their own spiritual corruption and inspire righteous indignation in others. The phrase "stir up himself" is an example of Metonymy, where the action (stirring up) stands for the moral and active confrontation that will ensue, embodying the righteous response to injustice.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Job 17:8 resonates deeply with the broader biblical narrative concerning divine justice, the suffering of the righteous, and the ultimate exposure of hypocrisy. It underscores the profound truth that God is not indifferent to injustice, even if His timing for intervention is not immediate. Job's conviction points to a universal principle: genuine righteousness, though it may suffer unjustly for a season, will ultimately be vindicated, and false piety, no matter how outwardly convincing, will eventually be exposed. This verse serves as a powerful reminder that God sees the heart and will judge accordingly, aligning with the prophetic tradition's call for true justice and integrity over mere ritualism or outward appearance. It offers hope to those who suffer innocently, assuring them that their plight is not unseen and that their example may serve to awaken others to truth and righteousness, affirming God's ultimate sovereignty over all human affairs.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Job 17:8 offers profound encouragement and challenge for believers today. For those enduring unjust suffering or false accusations, Job's unwavering conviction provides a beacon of hope: your plight is not unseen by God, nor will it be unnoticed by those with true spiritual discernment. Your perseverance in integrity, even amidst profound pain, can serve as a powerful testimony that shocks the conscience of the upright and exposes the hollowness of those who condemn without understanding. This verse calls us to live lives of uncompromising integrity, avoiding the temptation of outward piety that masks inner corruption. Furthermore, it challenges the "upright" and "innocent" among us not to remain passive observers of injustice. Just as Job anticipated, our moral indignation should compel us to "stir up ourselves"—to speak truth, to stand for justice, and to confront hypocrisy, whether in the church or in the broader world. Ultimately, it reinforces our confidence in God's perfect justice, reminding us that while vindication may be delayed, it is assured, and truth will ultimately prevail, bringing glory to God's righteous character.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Who are the "upright men" and "innocent" in this context, and why are they "astonied"?
Answer: The "upright men" (Hebrew: yashar) and "innocent" (Hebrew: naqi) refer to those who genuinely live with integrity, moral rectitude, and a true reverence for God, in contrast to the "hypocrite." They are people whose hearts are aligned with God's justice and truth. They are "astonied" (Hebrew: shâmêm, deeply shocked and appalled) because Job's suffering directly contradicts the prevailing understanding of retributive justice—that only the wicked suffer. His blamelessness, coupled with his immense affliction and the unjust accusations of his friends, presents a profound moral and theological paradox that deeply disturbs those who truly understand God's ways. Their astonishment is not just surprise, but a moral outrage at the perversion of justice unfolding before them, prompting them to take a stand.
What does it mean for the innocent to "stir up himself against the hypocrite"?
Answer: To "stir up himself" (Hebrew: ʻûwr) means to rouse oneself, to awaken, or to take active steps. It signifies a transition from passive observation to active engagement. In Job's context, it means that the truly righteous will not merely observe his suffering and the friends' false accusations but will be compelled by their moral conviction to confront and oppose the "hypocrite" (the one whose outward piety masks inner corruption or who perverts justice). This implies a future moment of moral reckoning where truth and integrity will rise to challenge and expose deceit and false piety, advocating for justice for the wronged. It's a call to action based on righteous indignation, a proactive stance against spiritual corruption.
How does Job 17:8 relate to Job's overall appeal for vindication?
Answer: Job 17:8 is a powerful expression of Job's tenacious hope for vindication, even as he languishes in despair. Throughout the book, Job desperately longs for an arbiter, a witness, or a redeemer who will stand up for him and prove his innocence before God and man (e.g., Job 16:19 and Job 19:25). This verse specifically anticipates a human response to his suffering – that his ordeal will serve as a catalyst, provoking the righteous to recognize his innocence and to confront the false wisdom and hypocrisy of his accusers. It's a prophetic declaration that his suffering will not be in vain but will ultimately serve to expose injustice and affirm the truth, contributing to his ultimate vindication, which is fully realized in Job 42:10-17.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Job 17:8 finds its ultimate and most profound fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is the preeminent "innocent" sufferer, the truly "upright man" who endured unimaginable pain and false accusation, not for His own sin, but for the sins of the world (as prophesied in Isaiah 53:4-6). His suffering on the cross was the ultimate "this" that caused "upright men" to be "astonied." The very act of His crucifixion, intended by the "hypocrites" (the self-righteous religious leaders of His day, whom Jesus often condemned for their hypocrisy, as in Matthew 23), to silence Him and prove His guilt, instead exposed their spiritual blindness and murderous intent, leading to the astonishing declaration of the centurion, "Truly this was the Son of God!" Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, was the innocent one who was "stirred up" to confront the ultimate hypocrite, Satan, and the power of sin and death. His resurrection is the divine vindication of the ultimate innocent sufferer, demonstrating God's perfect justice and calling all who are truly upright to confess Him as Lord and to stand against the spiritual hypocrisy and darkness of the world, empowered by His Spirit to live lives of authentic righteousness (Romans 8:1-4). Through Christ, the promise of vindication for the innocent and exposure for the hypocrite is not merely an earthly hope but a cosmic reality, securing eternal justice for all who believe.