Job 17:6

CERTAIN OF FINAL VINDICATION; JOB VOWED TO KEEP HIS INTEGRITY

"But he hath made me a byword of the people;

And they spit in my face.

Mine eye is dim also by reason of sorrow,

And all my members are as a shadow.

Upright men shall be astonished at this,

And the innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.

Yet shall the righteous hold on his way,

And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.

But as for you all, come on now again;

And I shall not find a wise man among you.

My days are past, my purposes are broken off,

Even the thoughts of my heart.

They change the night into the day:

The light, say they, is near unto the darkness.

If 50took for Sheol as my house;

If I have spread my couch in the darkness;

If I have said to corruption, Thou art my father;

To the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister;

Where then is my hope?

And, as for my hope, who shall see it?

It shall go down to the bars of Sheol,

When once there is rest in the dust."

Job 17:6-9 here are difficult. "It is hard to find a path through the profusion of ideas here."[10]

"All my members are as a shadow" (Job 17:7). Barnes paraphrased this, "I am a mere skeleton; I am emaciated and exhausted by my sufferings."[11]

"Upright men shall be astonished at this" (Job 17:9). "They will be amazed that God has permitted a holy man to suffer such calamity and to be treated in such a manner by his friends."[12]

"Yet shall the righteous hold on their way" (Job 17:9). "As these words stand, they express Job's conviction of final victory."[13] They do even more than that. They constitute Job's pledge, that in spite of his friends' unbelief, in spite of his terrible sufferings, in spite of everything, he will continue in the way of righteousness.

"These words confounded the hopes of Satan to destroy Job's integrity; for they indicate that the righteous (including Job), in spite of the irregular dealings of providence and the slanders of the public (including Job's friends), will persevere more and more in righteousness."[14] "The human spirit here rose to the height of moral grandeur."[15]

The authorship of Job continues to be more and more impossible to attribute to anyone other than to Job himself. No writer during Israel's captivity, or at any other time than that of Job's lifetime, could have revealed the innermost thoughts of Job, as do these chapters. Job himself is the author of this great central section of the book; and his words are most certainly inspired of God.

"But as for you all, come on now again; and I shall not find a wise man among you" (Job 17:10). Rawlinson gave the meaning here as, "A challenge to Job's detractors. `Return, all of you, to your old work of detraction, if you please'; I don't even care."[16] Jamieson interpreted it thus: "Return if you have anything really wise to advance, although I doubt it. As yet, I cannot find one wise man among you all."[17]

"My purposes are broken off" (Job 17:11). No sadder words than these were ever written. "How many unfinished plans are terminated every day! The farmer leaves his plow in the furrow; the lawyer his brief half prepared, the mechanic his work undone, the student his books lying open, the author his writing not finished! How many schemes of wickedness or of benevolence, of fraud or of kindness, or of hatred or mercy are concluded every day by death! Dear reader, soon all your plans, and mine will be forever terminated.[18]

In the concluding verses of this chapter, Job clearly contemplated death, but there is no hint of disrespect for God. "There is a note of acceptance and confidence throughout the passage."[19] Despite his perplexity and suffering, "One finds this growing sense that all is not as it seems, and that one day, at another time, and another place, he will be vindicated."[20]

"When once there is rest in the dust" (Job 17:16). Rowley wrote that this rendition does not conform to the Masoretic text, and recommended the RSV which reads: "Where then is my hope ... Shall we descend together into the dust"?[21]