Job 17:1-5 (ESV)
1 “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
the graveyard is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their provocation.
3 “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
who is there who will put up security for me?
4 Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.
5 He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
the eyes of his children will fail.
Job is close to death. Chapter 17 is all about death and dying. He is losing hope. In chapter 15 we read his friend Eliphaz’s second speech to Job. He tells Job that it is obvious that he has sinned because his observation in life is that those who sin get the same punishment Job is now experiencing. In chapter 16 Job attempts to defend himself against this “friends” accusations. But in chapter 17 he turns more to plead with God about his facing death’s door, for reasons he fails to understand.
In verse one of the chapter he simply states and acknowledges that the grave is right down his path. He is staring at it with full view. Whereas once upon a time he was looking at death through the wrong end of the binoculars, he now sees it clearly without them. But, that is not only what he sees. Although the vision of the grave must be mind boggling to him, his eyes are also on what others are saying about him and to him (like Eliphaz and his other two friends). He states that his “eyes dwell on their provocation.” This word, “provocation” is to be full of contempt for someone. Instead of his friends giving him comfort, they, instead, ridicule, demean and find reasons for his utter destruction. None of their reasons are accurate, but, none-the-less they speak out and provoke him. He sees that provocation with one eye and the grave with the other. Remember, it is Satan who has touched Job. God declared him righteous. This whole thing is not about Job’s righteousness, but about Satan’s provocation of Job. Who are Satan’s tools: His three friends.
In verse 3, above, we read Job asking God for support. He wants God to “lay down a pledge” for him. The second line in verse three calls the “pledge” something of a “security” for Job. He needs someone to stand in the gap for him. The words mean to have someone take his mortgage for him. He is not talking about the bank loan for his house, but rather the mortgage payments for his life. He has no help from his friends. God has closed their eyes to even understand what is happening to him (verse 4). They are blind. Therefore Job can only appeal to God for help. Death stares him in the face, therefore God is the only hope for him in his heart.
Verse five is a bit of challenge to interpret. It is a proverb to teach those reading something about Job, suffering and death and those who condemn the dying with false judgment. Remember, Job is responding to the false claims of Eliphaz. Job is saying, in verse five, that those false words of his condemning friends will come back to hurt them. If his friends want to keep speaking bad about him, to get some gain from it, they will see that evil fall upon their children. These “friends” have condemned, criticized and tried to correct Job. None of them have held is hand and consoled him. Job sees their provocation, while see his certain end, and needs hope. God will give it to him at the end of the book. But, in this chapter his friends have turned to his judges and the grave has drawn exceedingly close. That combination has stolen Job’s hope. When his friends could give him hope, they do him harm. The only good in this section is that false hope in his friends has been stripped away so that Job’s hope in God can rush in and save the day.
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