Old Testament Commentary - Job 17

by Don R. Hender

Scriptural Text [& Editorial]	Commentary & Explanation	Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
CHAPTER 17 Job speaks o the sorrow of death and of the grave in that day when the body returns to the dust.
1 MY ^abreath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me. 2 Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation? 3 ^aLay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me? 4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding^a: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.	4^a thou hast hid their heart from understanding Knowing that God is all knowing, all powerful and 'ever present' has given many a false interpretation of what God does and does not do. God has give unto man his agency of personal choice. While through the Holy Spirit, God can and will give men understanding and knowledge about all things, God will not force man to receive such unto himself. Thus it is not God that does hide man's heart from understanding, it is but the personal choice of men that keep themselves from 'hearing' and obtaining that understanding from God. So what is it that God will do when men so cut themselves off from God's understanding? Well he punish them for not having acquired that understanding or will he withhold from them blessing because they fail to listen to the things of the spirit? It is man that keeps himself from receiving the fullness from Heaven and that due to man's own exercise or lack of proper exercise of agency.	1^a HEB spirit is consumed 3^a ID a pledge
5 He that speaketh ^aflattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail. 6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and ^aaforetime I was as a tabret. 7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.		5^a TG flattery 6^a HEB I am as an abomination before men
8 Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite. 9 The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath ^aclean hands shall be stronger and stronger. 10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.		9^a 2 Ne. 25:16; D&C 88:86
11 My ^adays are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart. 12 They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness. 13 If I wait, the grave is mine ^ahouse: I have made my bed in the darkness.		11^a Job 7:6 13^a Eccl. 12:5; Alma 40:11
14 I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister. 15 And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it? 16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.