Job 17

Chap. XVII. Ver. I—16. Job continues to bewail his case and seeks his refuge in death.— An attentive reader will observe,” says Scott, (the poet,) ‘that the style in the first ten verses of this chapter,” (and he might have included the last five of the preceding) ‘expresseth great discomposure. There are frequent and sudden changes of the person. The transitions are abrupt, without the joining particles: and the sentiments follow one another in a hurry, with little or no connexion, just as the tumultuous and shifting emotions of his mind suggested them.” He then falls into a melancholy calmness, and resigns himself to death and the grave. The first verse of this chapter seems to belong to the preceding, as it expresses the nearness of his end, whether we refer it to his breath being corrupted by disease, or his spirit worn out with suffering.

He then adverts to his “miserable comforters,” and challenges them not to mock him, but to throw down a pledge to meet him on his trial before the great Judge of all. He then turns suddenly to God, and says, “Thou hast hid their heart from understanding.” And so he proceeds, addressing God and them alternately. The concluding verses are peculiarly pathetic— And to the worm—My mother! and my sister! And where is now my hope? Even my hope, who shall see it? They shall go down to the bars of Shoel, When [we] rest together in the dust.” In this text we have preserved the original term Shoel, for the purpose of remarking that we consider it to mean the grave or sepulchre, when spoken in reference to the body, ((Job 7:9); xxi. 13, &c.) and when used in reference to the mind, the invisible world, or world of souls. ((Genesis 37:35): (Proverbs 9:18); (Isaiah 14:9), &c.) And the bars of Shoel, or the sepulchre, may possibly refer to the niches in the sides of the sepulchre, where the bodies were deposited. The hope here spoken of, “Where is now my hope?” is explained by the best Commentators, not in reference to his hope in the Redeemer, ((Job 19:25).) but that temporal hope with which others attempted to delude him.