Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 17

My breath is corrupt. — As it is said to be in Elephantiasis. Some understand it, “My spirit is consumed.” (See margin.)

The graves. — that is, the grave is mine — my portion. The plural is frequently used for the singular in Hebrew, as, for example, in the case of the word blood, which is commonly plural, though in English it is never used that way.

My eye continue in their provocation? —“It sees, and can see nothing else; has nothing else to look upon.”: a bitter reproach against his friends.

Lay down now ... — i.e., Give now a pledge; be surety for me with Yourself. 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, that is, “Be surety for me.” (See also Psalms 119:122: Be surety for your servant for good.)

There is that in man which demands exact and rigorous fulfilment or expiation of non-fulfilment. Job felt that his only hope of this fulfilment or expiation of non-fulfilment lay with God Himself: that same God who had put this sense of obligation within him; therefore he says, Be surety for me with Yourself.

He longed for the daysman who should lay his hand upon both him and God; he now longs for that surety with God that God alone can give. The surety must be Divine if his witness is in the heavens; it must be the witness of God to God himself. In this wonderful way does the language of Job fit in with all that we have since and elsewhere learned of the persons in the Godhead.

Who is he that will strike hands with me? —This was the method of becoming surety; but he knows that there is no one among his friends who will do this, or that could do it if he would. (Compare to Psalms 49:7.)

Their heart. —that is, the heart of his friends.

He that speaketh flattery to his friends. —The three words rendered this way are, due to their extreme brevity, very obscure. Literally, they read: for a portion he will tell friends. But what is the meaning of this?

Some translate it as, “He denounces his friends as prey”—that is, such is the conduct of Job’s friends toward Job. Others understand it as, “He would say, friends should take their part”—that is, anyone who would undertake to be a guarantor for me would naturally expect my friends to share the responsibility; but so far from this, the eyes of his sons would search for it in vain; they would never see it.