Job 17:2

Job 17:2 [Are there] not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?

Ver. 2. Are there no mockers with me? ] Heb. If there be not mockers with me, q.d. despeream, let me be punished, or let me be blamed for wishing to argue it out with God; so some Jewish doctors sense it. Job had before complained about his friends’ jeering and girding at him, Job 16:20 . To be mocked in misery is no small aggravation. See what is threatened, Proverbs 1:26 . The proverb is, Oculus, fides, et fama non patiuntur iocos, There is no jesting with a man’s eye, faith, and fame. Junius rendereth the text thus, Forasmuch as there are no mockings with me, I mean honestly, and deal plainly, and yet mine eye continueth in their provocations, neither can I be set right in their opinions, so prejudiced they are against me.

And doth not mine eye continue in their provocation? ] Heb. Lodge or tarry all night in their provocations, or bitternesses? Broughton readeth, In these men’s vexing lodgeth mine eye; that is, I lodge not so much in my bed as in the thoughts of my friends’ unkindness. And indeed, saith one, a man may sleep better upon bare boards than upon hard words. Some refer it to the eye of his mind lifted up to God in prayer; but yet no sweetness coming from him either internally or externally. The former is rather to be followed.