King James Version
Job 17
16 verses with commentary
Job Continues: My Spirit Is Broken
My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me. breath: or, spirit is spent
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KJV Study Commentary
'My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.' Job's lament intensifies: 'breath' (רוּחִי, ruchi—spirit) is 'corrupt' (חֻבָּלָה, chubbalah—ruined, destroyed), 'days' (יָמַי, yamay) are 'extinct' (נִזְעֲכוּ, niz'akhu—extinguished, snuffed out), 'graves' (קְבָרִים, qevarim) await. The triple parallelism emphasizes complete deterioration—spirit, time, and body all failing. ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
XVII.
(1) **My breath is corrupt.**—As it is said to be in Elephantiasis. Some understand it, “My spirit is consumed.” (See margin.)
**The graves.**—*i.e., the grave is mine*—*my portion. *The plural is frequently used for the singular in Hebrew, as, *e.g., *in the case of the word *blood, *which is commonly plural, though with us it is never so used.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 17
Chapter Outline
Job appeals from man to God.(1-9)
His hope is not in life, but in death.(10-16)
**Verses 1-9**
Job reflects upon the harsh censures his friends had passed upon him, and, looking on himself as a dying man, he appeals to God. Our time is ending. It concerns us carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for eternity. We see th...
Read full commentary →Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation? continue: Heb. lodge
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?</strong> Job's rhetorical questions express his anguish over the relentless taunting he endures from his so-called friends. The Hebrew <em>hatulim</em> (הֲתֻלִים, "mockers") denotes scoffers who ridicule and belittle—not merely those who disagree but those who deride with contempt. Job's companions, who sho...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **Mine eye continue in their provocation?**—“It sees, and can see nothing else; has nothing else to look upon “: a bitter reproach against his friends.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 17
Chapter Outline
Job appeals from man to God.(1-9)
His hope is not in life, but in death.(10-16)
**Verses 1-9**
Job reflects upon the harsh censures his friends had passed upon him, and, looking on himself as a dying man, he appeals to God. Our time is ending. It concerns us carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for eternity. We see th...
Read full commentary →Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?
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KJV Study Commentary
Job challenges God: 'Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?' This legal language asks God to provide bail or pledge. Job seeks divine guarantee of justice, recognizing no human can provide security before God's court.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **Lay down now . . .**—*i.e., Give now a pledge; be surety for me with Thyself. *He has declared that he has a witness in the heavens, but he desires some *present *token of the vindication to come of which he is confident, and so he asks God to give him such a pledge. This is virtually the same prayer that we find Hezekiah using (Isaiah 38:14): “O Lord, I am oppressed: *undertake *for me,” th...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 7 Es 7:1-6. Esther Pleads for Her Own Life and the Life of Her People.
**4. we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed--**that is, by the cruel and perfidious scheme of that man, who offered an immense sum of money to purchase our extermination. Esther dwelt on his contemplated atrocity, in a variety of expressions, which both evinced the depth of her own emotions, and were intended to...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 17
Chapter Outline
Job appeals from man to God.(1-9)
His hope is not in life, but in death.(10-16)
**Verses 1-9**
Job reflects upon the harsh censures his friends had passed upon him, and, looking on himself as a dying man, he appeals to God. Our time is ending. It concerns us carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for eternity. We see th...
Read full commentary →For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>For thou hast hid their heart from understanding</strong> (כִּי־לִבָּם צָפַנְתָּ מִשָּׂכֶל, ki-libbam tsafanta mi-sakel)—Job addresses God directly: <em>tsafanta</em> (you have hidden/concealed) indicates divine agency in his friends' blindness. <em>Sakel</em> (understanding/insight/wisdom) is the discernment they lack despite their verbose arguments. This echoes Isaiah 6:9-10 and anticipa...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(4) **Their heart.**—i.e., the heart of his friends.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 17
Chapter Outline
Job appeals from man to God.(1-9)
His hope is not in life, but in death.(10-16)
**Verses 1-9**
Job reflects upon the harsh censures his friends had passed upon him, and, looking on himself as a dying man, he appeals to God. Our time is ending. It concerns us carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for eternity. We see th...
Read full commentary →He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>He that speaketh flattery to his friends</strong> (לְחֵלֶק יַגִּיד רֵעִים, le-kheleq yaggid re'im)—<em>Kheleq</em> means 'portion, share, flattery'—here referring to those who betray friends for personal gain or approval. <em>Yaggid</em> (declares, informs against) has legal overtones of bearing witness.<br><br><strong>Even the eyes of his children shall fail</strong> (וְעֵינֵי בָנָיו תִּכ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **He that speaketh flattery to his friends.**—The three words thus rendered are, from their very brevity, most obscure. Literally, they run: *for a portion he will tell friends. *But what is the meaning of this? Some render, “He denounceth his friends for a prey,” *i.e., such *is the conduct of Job’s friends towards Job. Others understand it, “He would say, friends should take their part,” *i....
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 17
Chapter Outline
Job appeals from man to God.(1-9)
His hope is not in life, but in death.(10-16)
**Verses 1-9**
Job reflects upon the harsh censures his friends had passed upon him, and, looking on himself as a dying man, he appeals to God. Our time is ending. It concerns us carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for eternity. We see th...
Read full commentary →He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret. aforetime: or, before them
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KJV Study Commentary
'He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.' Job becomes a 'byword' (מָשָׁל, mashal—proverb, object lesson) of 'the people' (עַמִּים, ammim), and 'aforetime' (לְפָנִים, lefanim—formerly) people came 'as a tabret' (כְּתֹף, ketofe—like a drum/tambourine, for joy). The Hebrew is difficult but suggests Job has become a proverbial example of calamity, and people spit ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) **He** (*i.e., *God) **hath made** **me also a byword **of **the people;** **and aforetime I** **was as a** **tabret.**—Or, *I am become as a tabret, or drum openly, i.e., *a signal of warning. “My case will be fraught with warning for others.” But some render it, “I am become an open abhorrence, or one in whose face they spit.” The general meaning is perfectly clear, though the way it may be ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
Es 7:7-10. The King Causes Haman to Be Hanged on His Own Gallows.
**7. he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king--**When the king of Persia orders an offender to be executed, and then rises and goes into the women's apartment, it is a sign that no mercy is to be hoped for. Even the sudden rising of the king in anger was the same as if he had pronounced sentence.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 17
Chapter Outline
Job appeals from man to God.(1-9)
His hope is not in life, but in death.(10-16)
**Verses 1-9**
Job reflects upon the harsh censures his friends had passed upon him, and, looking on himself as a dying man, he appeals to God. Our time is ending. It concerns us carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for eternity. We see th...
Read full commentary →Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow. my members: or, my thoughts
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow</strong> (וַתֵּכַהּ מִכַּעַשׂ עֵינִי, vattekhah mikka'as eini)—<em>Tekhah</em> (grows dim/darkens) describes failing vision from grief or age. <em>Ka'as</em> (sorrow/grief/vexation) is emotional and physical anguish. Job's suffering has literal physiological effects, contradicting his friends' assumption that only the wicked suffer visibly.<br><br><...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**8. Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was--**We do not know the precise form of the couches on which the Persians reclined at table. But it is probable that they were not very different from those used by the Greeks and Romans. Haman, perhaps, at first stood up to beg pardon of Esther; but driven in his extremity to resort to an attitude of the most earnest supplication, he fell prostr...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 17
Chapter Outline
Job appeals from man to God.(1-9)
His hope is not in life, but in death.(10-16)
**Verses 1-9**
Job reflects upon the harsh censures his friends had passed upon him, and, looking on himself as a dying man, he appeals to God. Our time is ending. It concerns us carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for eternity. We see th...
Read full commentary →Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Upright men shall be astonied at this</strong> (יָשָׁרִים יָשֹׁמּוּ עַל־זֹאת, yesharim yashommu al-zot)—<em>Yesharim</em> (upright, righteous) are the truly godly, contrasted with Job's judgmental friends. <em>Yashommu</em> (shall be appalled/astonished/desolate) expresses horrified shock. Job prophesies that genuinely righteous observers will be appalled at his undeserved suffering—and pe...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(8) **Upright men shall be astonied.**—“As a result of the warning my case would give, upright men would be astonished at it, innocent men would be encouraged, and the righteous would persevere and wax bold.”
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**9. Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows--**This eunuch had probably been the messenger sent with the invitation to Haman, and on that occasion had seen the gallows. The information he now volunteered, as well it may be from abhorrence of Haman's cold-blooded conspiracy as from sympathy with his amiable mistress, involved with her people in imminent pe...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 17
Chapter Outline
Job appeals from man to God.(1-9)
His hope is not in life, but in death.(10-16)
**Verses 1-9**
Job reflects upon the harsh censures his friends had passed upon him, and, looking on himself as a dying man, he appeals to God. Our time is ending. It concerns us carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for eternity. We see th...
Read full commentary →The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. be: Heb. add strength
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KJV Study Commentary
Job's confidence emerges: 'The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.' Despite personal despair, Job affirms that righteousness ultimately prevails. This faith in moral order coexists with personal suffering's mystery.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**10. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai--**He has not been the only plotter of mischief whose feet have been taken in the net which they hid (Psa 9:15). But never was condemnation more just, and retribution more merited, than the execution of that gigantic criminal.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 17
Chapter Outline
Job appeals from man to God.(1-9)
His hope is not in life, but in death.(10-16)
**Verses 1-9**
Job reflects upon the harsh censures his friends had passed upon him, and, looking on himself as a dying man, he appeals to God. Our time is ending. It concerns us carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for eternity. We see th...
Read full commentary →But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
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KJV Study Commentary
Job challenges his friends to respond with wisdom: 'But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.' This devastating assessment of his counselors declares their collective failure. The call to 'return' suggests they need to rethink their positions. Job's inability to 'find one wise man' among them indicts their theology. True wisdom requires humility to a...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(10) **But as for you all, do ye return.**—This is probably said with irony. “Come again and renew the argument between us; but I shall not be able to find a wise man among you. I am willing to listen to your argument, but I am confident as to the result of it.”
**For I cannot find.**—Rather, *and I shall not find: i.e., *if ye renew the argument.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-16**
Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hope of his return to a prosperous estate; he here shows that those do not go wisely about the work of comforting the afflicted, who fetch their comforts from the possibility of recovery in this world. It is our wisdom to comfort ourselves, and others, in distress, with that which will not fail; the promise of God, his love a...
Read full commentary →My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart. the thoughts: Heb. the possessions
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KJV Study Commentary
'My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.' Job mourns lost future: 'days' (יָמַי, yamay) are 'past' (עָבְרוּ, avru), 'purposes' (זִמֹּתַי, zimmotay—plans, schemes) are 'broken off' (נִתְּקוּ, nittequ—torn away), and 'thoughts of heart' (מוֹרָשֵׁי לְבָבִי, morashey levavi—possessions of heart) shattered. This describes the grief of lost dreams. Job had plans, hop...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 8 Es 8:1-6. Mordecai Advanced.
**1. On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman ... unto Esther--**His property was confiscated, and everything belonging to him, as some compensation for the peril to which she had been exposed.
**Mordecai came before the king--**that is, was introduced at court and appointed one of the seven counsellors. Esther displayed great prudence an...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-16**
Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hope of his return to a prosperous estate; he here shows that those do not go wisely about the work of comforting the afflicted, who fetch their comforts from the possibility of recovery in this world. It is our wisdom to comfort ourselves, and others, in distress, with that which will not fail; the promise of God, his love a...
Read full commentary →They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness. short: Heb. near
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KJV Study Commentary
Job's world is inverted: 'They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.' Job experiences reality's distortion—normal rhythms disrupted, light overwhelmed by darkness. This describes more than insomnia; it's the disorientation suffering brings. Everything feels wrong, upside-down. Yet Job's ability to articulate this chaos shows he hasn't lost all orientation. Naming the e...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(12) **They change the night into day.**—Comp. Job 11:17. So little did his friends enter into his case that they wanted him to believe that his night of trial was the reverse of darkness, and that there was light at hand. This was to him only the more painful mockery, because of its contrast to his felt condition. He, on the contrary, says that his only hope is in the grave. “The light,” say they...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**2. the king took off his ring, ... and gave it unto Mordecai--**By that act transferring to him all the power and authority which the ring symbolized, and promoting him to the high dignity which Haman had formerly filled.
**Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman--**as her steward or factor, to manage that large and opulent estate which had been assigned to her.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-16**
Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hope of his return to a prosperous estate; he here shows that those do not go wisely about the work of comforting the afflicted, who fetch their comforts from the possibility of recovery in this world. It is our wisdom to comfort ourselves, and others, in distress, with that which will not fail; the promise of God, his love a...
Read full commentary →If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
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KJV Study Commentary
Job sees only death ahead: 'If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.' Job's expectation has shifted from vindication to death. Making his bed in darkness suggests resigned acceptance of death as only remaining future. The grave as 'house' inverts normal dwelling imagery—Job expects to 'live' in death. This darkness precedes his eventual restoration, showing that even...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**3. Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet--**The king was then not reclining at table, but sitting on a divan, most probably in the Persian attitude, leaning back against the cushions, and one foot under him.
**besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman--**that is, to repeal the sanguinary edict which, at the secret instigation of Haman, had been recen...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-16**
Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hope of his return to a prosperous estate; he here shows that those do not go wisely about the work of comforting the afflicted, who fetch their comforts from the possibility of recovery in this world. It is our wisdom to comfort ourselves, and others, in distress, with that which will not fail; the promise of God, his love a...
Read full commentary →I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister. said: Heb. cried, or, called
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KJV Study Commentary
'I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.' Job's dark poetry addresses 'corruption' (לַשַּׁחַת, lashachat—the pit, decay) as father and 'worm' (לָרִמָּה, larimmah) as mother and sister. This inverts family intimacy—instead of human relationships, Job claims kinship with decay. It's both gallows humor and genuine despair. Death and decay are his...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**4. Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther--**in token that her request was accepted, and that she needed no longer to maintain the humble attitude of a suppliant.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-16**
Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hope of his return to a prosperous estate; he here shows that those do not go wisely about the work of comforting the afflicted, who fetch their comforts from the possibility of recovery in this world. It is our wisdom to comfort ourselves, and others, in distress, with that which will not fail; the promise of God, his love a...
Read full commentary →And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
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KJV Study Commentary
'And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?' The double question emphasizes hopelessness: 'where is my hope?' (אַיֵּה אֵפוֹ תִקְוָתִי, ayyeh efo tiqvati) and 'who shall see it?' (מִי יְשׁוּרֶנָּה, mi yeshurenah). This is faith's darkest night—not denying hope's existence but unable to locate it. The Reformed tradition acknowledges such dark nights (St. John of the Cross, Puritan w...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**5-6. reverse the letters devised by Haman ... to destroy the Jews--**The whole conduct of Esther in this matter is characterized by great tact, and the variety of expressions by which she describes her willing submission to her royal husband, the address with which she rolls the whole infamy of the meditated massacre on Haman, and the argument she draws from the king's sanction being surreptitio...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-16**
Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hope of his return to a prosperous estate; he here shows that those do not go wisely about the work of comforting the afflicted, who fetch their comforts from the possibility of recovery in this world. It is our wisdom to comfort ourselves, and others, in distress, with that which will not fail; the promise of God, his love a...
Read full commentary →They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
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KJV Study Commentary
Hope descends to death: 'They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.' Job's hope—if any remains—has descended to Sheol's bars (gates). Even there, the language of 'rest together' suggests Job hasn't fully abandoned faith. The dust recalls creation ('dust you are,' Genesis 3:19) and anticipates resurrection hope ('your dead shall live,' Isaiah 26:19). Job's low...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(16) **They shall go down to the bars of the pit.**—The last verse of this chapter, which is itself one of the most difficult, is the most difficult of all. The difficulty consists in this: *the bars of the grave *are masculine, and the verb, *they shall go down, *is feminine plural; it seems improbable that *the bars of the grave *should be the subject of the verb (though perhaps not absolutely i...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**5-6. reverse the letters devised by Haman ... to destroy the Jews--**The whole conduct of Esther in this matter is characterized by great tact, and the variety of expressions by which she describes her willing submission to her royal husband, the address with which she rolls the whole infamy of the meditated massacre on Haman, and the argument she draws from the king's sanction being surreptitio...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-16**
Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hope of his return to a prosperous estate; he here shows that those do not go wisely about the work of comforting the afflicted, who fetch their comforts from the possibility of recovery in this world. It is our wisdom to comfort ourselves, and others, in distress, with that which will not fail; the promise of God, his love a...
Read full commentary →