Job
Job 17
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4 commentators · 38 notes on this chapter
Matthew Henry2
Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.
Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.
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…
Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hopes of his return to a prosperous estate again; now he here shows, I. That it was their folly to talk so (Job 17:10): "Return, and come now, be convinced that you are in an error, and let me persuade you…
John Gill16
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
My breath is corrupt,.... Through the force of his disease, which made it have an ill smell, so that it was strange and disagreeable to his wife, Job 19:17; passing through his lungs, or other parts, which were affected with some disorder, or as frequently is…
Are there not mockers with me?.... Meaning not irreligious persons, such as make a mock at sin, a jest of religion, a laugh at good men, sneer at the doctrines and ordinances of God, and scoff at things future, as the coming of Christ, the resurrection of the…
Lay down now,.... A pledge that thou wilt provide a surety, appoint and admit one to plead for me, and that thou wilt hear my cause, and determine it; or "put now", or "put, I pray thee" (r), thy heart and mind to me and my case, to my petition and request…
Keil & Delitzsch5
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
1 My breath is corrupt, My days are extinct, The graves are ready for me. 2 Truly mockery surrounds me, And mine eye shall loiter over their disputings. Hirz., Hlgst., and others, wrongly consider the division of the chapter here to be incorrect. The thought…
3 Lay down now, be bondsman for me with Thyself; Who else should furnish surety to me?! 4 For Thou hast closed their heart from understanding, Therefore wilt Thou not give authority to them. 5 He who giveth his friends for spoil, The eyes of his children…
6 And He hath made me a proverb to the world, And I became as one in whose face they spit. 7 Then mine eye became dim with grief, And all my members were like a shadow. 8 The upright were astonished at it, And the innocent is stirred up over the godless; 9…
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown15
The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.
Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.
UMBREIT, more emphatically, "had I only not to endure mockery, in the midst of their contentions I (mine eye) would remain quiet." eye continue--Hebrew, "tarry all night"; a figure taken from sleep at night, to express undisturbed rest; opposed to (Job…
Lay down now--namely, a pledge or security; that is, be my surety; do Thou attest my innocence, since my friends only mock me (Job 17:2). Both litigating parties had to lay down a sum as security before the trial. put me in a surety--Provide a surety for me…
their heart--The intellect of his friends. shalt . . . exalt--Rather imperative, "exalt them not"; allow them not to conquer [UMBREIT], (Isa 6:9-10).
World English Bible — Public domain