Job · chapter 17 of 42
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In Job 17 Job says his spirit is broken, his days are extinct and only the grave awaits him. He complains of the mockers around him and asks God himself to be his guarantor, since no one else will answer for him. The upright are appalled at his case, and Job asks where his hope is, whether it will go down to Sheol with him.
This short chapter continues the lament of Job 16. Job has already declared that he has a witness in heaven, and now he asks God to guarantee his cause, because no one on earth will. It is one of the bleakest pages of the book, yet within the despondency there is a sentence that holds to the steadiness of the righteous.
Job begins by saying that his spirit is broken, his days are extinct and the graveyard is ready for him. Mockers are with him, and his eye dwells on their provocation. Then he turns to God with a bold request: lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who else will put up security for me? His friends' hearts are closed to understanding, so God will not exalt them. The one who denounces his friends for a reward will see the eyes of his children fail.
Job has become a byword among the peoples and one in whose face they spit. His eye has grown dim from grief, and all his members are like a shadow. The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stir themselves up against the godless. Yet the righteous will hold to his way, and he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
But then Job turns to his friends in discouragement: come on again, all of you, for I shall not find a wise man among you. My days are past, my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart. They make night into day, and say that light is near to darkness. If I hope, the grave is my house; I make my bed in darkness. I call to the pit, you are my father, and to the worm, my mother and my sister. Where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? Will it go down with me to the bars of Sheol, when we descend together into the dust?
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Job says his spirit is broken, his days are extinguished and the grave awaits him. It is the expression of a man who feels at the edge of the tomb, without strength to go on.
Job asks God to lay down a pledge for him and be his guarantor, because no one else will clasp his hand. His request is surprising: he asks God to defend him before God himself, and points to the need for a mediator.
In spite of everything, the righteous will hold to his way and he who has clean hands will grow stronger. It is one of the few sentences of firmness in this chapter, and it shows that Job's faith is still standing beneath his discouragement.
Job asks where his hope is and who will see it. The question has no answer in the chapter, but the book will answer it step by step: Job's hope is not in himself but in the God who will at last speak.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: His spirit is broken, his days are extinct and the graveyard is ready for him. — Job 17:1
Answer: To lay down a pledge for him and be his guarantor, since no one else will. — Job 17:3
Answer: A byword, one in whose face they spit. — Job 17:6
Answer: What has happened to Job; the innocent stir themselves up against the godless. — Job 17:8
Answer: Hold to his way, and the one with clean hands will grow stronger and stronger. — Job 17:9
Answer: Where it is, and who will see it; it will go down with him to Sheol. — Job 17:15-16
Job 17 describes the bottom of discouragement, and the book does not soften it. It reminds us that there are believers who pass through seasons in which they can hardly see hope, and that this does not make them less faithful. In a small group it is important to leave room for the one who says they cannot go on, without rushing to correct them.
At the same time, one sentence does not go out: the righteous will hold firm. Job asks God for a guarantor, and the Christian recognizes that Jesus is the guarantor of a better covenant. That truth does not erase the pain, but it offers a place to lean when human words run out.
Job 17 ends with Job's hope going down with him to Sheol. In Job 18 Bildad will speak for the second time, offended that Job treated him like an animal, and will describe the fate of the wicked in somber images.
In the ancient world, a guarantor answered with his own pledge for another's debt or cause. Job asks that God himself vouch for his innocence, because no one on earth will. For Christians, this request points to Jesus Christ, guarantor of a better covenant.
Because he has listened to their arguments and sees that they do not understand what is happening to him. His friends apply a doctrine that does not fit his case. Job does not accuse them of malice but of blindness, though their lack of compassion still hurts him.
It is a poetic image expressing that the grave is the only family he has left. Job feels so alone that death seems like home. It is not a teaching about death but the cry of a crushed man.