171 “My spirit is consumed.
My days are extinct,
And the grave is ready for me. 2 Surely there are mockers with me.
My eye dwells on their provocation. 3 “Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself.
Who is there who will strike hands with me? 4 For you have hidden their heart from understanding,
Therefore you shall not exalt them. 5 He who denounces his friends for a prey,
Even the eyes of his children shall fail. 6 “But he has made me a byword of the people.
They spit in my face. 7 My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow.
All my members are as a shadow. 8 Upright men shall be astonished at this.
The innocent shall stir up himself against the godless. 9 Yet shall the righteous hold on his way.
He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 17:1-9
Commentary on Job 17:1-9
(Read Job 17:1-9)
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 the good use the righteous should make of Job's afflictions from God, from enemies, and from friends. Instead of being discouraged in the service of God, by the hard usage this faithful servant of God met with, they should be made bold to proceed and persevere therein. 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 may meet with.