Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 17:6
He hath made me also a byword of the people; and formerly I was as a tabret.
6. This verse reads,
I am made also a byeword or the peoples,
And am become one to be spit on in the face.
The words, I am made might mean, as A.V., He hath made me, the reference being to God. Undoubtedly Job turns away here from men and refers to a broader evil, the inexplicable course of the world in God’s hand. But probably the allusion to God is made in this indirect way. By the “peoples” Job means mankind in its various tribes, for his calamity and the wickedness that was inferred from it would be widely known. Comp. what is said by Job of his treatment by the debased races of men about him, ch. Job 30:9 seq.; and see a similar statement in Bildad’s reply, ch. Job 18:20.
aforetime I was as a tabret ] Rather as above; lit. I am (must be) a spitting-in-the-face. A tabret is a timbrel or tambourine (comp. tabering, i. e. beating, upon their breasts, Nah 2:7); the Heb. word topheth (spitting) has been wrongly assumed by the A.V. to be of the same meaning as toph (timbrel).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He hath also – That is, God has done this.
Also a by-word – A proverb ( mashal); a term of reproach, ridicule, or scorn. lie has exposed me to derision.
And aforetime – Margin before them. The margin is the correct translation of the Hebrew, panym. It means, in their presence, or in their view.
I was as a tabret – This is an unhappy translation. The true meaning is, I am become their abhorrence, or am to them an object of contempt. Vulgate, I am an exampie (exemplum) to them. Septuagint, I am become a laughter ( gelos) to them. The Chaldee renders it, Thou hast placed me for a proverb to the people, and I shall be Gehenna ( gayhnnom) to them. The Hebrew word topheth – or Tophet, is the name which is often given in the Scriptures to the valley of Hinnom – the place where children were sacrificed to Moloch; see the notes at Mat 5:22. But there is no evidence or probability that the word was so used in the time of Job. It is never used in the Scriptures in the sense of a tabret, that is a tabor or small drum; though the word toph is thus used; see the notes at Isa 5:12. The word used here is derived, probably, from the obsolete verb typ – to spit out; and then to spit out with contempt. The verb is so used in Chaldee. Castell. The meaning of the word probably still lives in the Arabic, The Arabic word means to spit out with contempt; and the various forms of the nouns derived from the verb are applied to anything detested, or detestable; to the parings of the nails; to an abandoned woman; to a dog, etc. See Castell on this word. I have no doubt that is the sense here, and that we have here a word whose true signification is to be sought in the Arabic; and that Job means to say that he was treated as the most loathsome and execrable object.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. He hath made me also a by-word] My afflictions and calamities have become a subject of general conversation, so that my poverty and affliction are proverbial. As poor as Job, As afflicted as Job, are proverbs that have even reached our times and are still in use.
Aforetime I was as a tabret.] This is not the translation of the Hebrew vethopheth lephanim eheyeh. Instead of lephanim, I would read liphneghem, and then the clause might be translated thus: I shall be as a furnace, or consuming fire (Topheth) before them. They shall have little reason to mock when they see the end of the Lord’s dealings with me; my example will be a consuming fire to them, and my false friends will be confounded. COVERDALE translates thus: He hath made me as it were a byworde of the comon people. I am his gestinge stocke amonge them.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He, i.e. God, who is oft designed by this pronoun in this book.
A by-word, or proverb, or common talk. My calamities are so great and prodigious, that they fill all people with discourse, and are become proverbial to express extreme miseries. Compare Num 21:27,28; Deu 28:37.
And, or but, or although, as this particle is oft used.
Aforetime; so he aggravateth his present misery by the mention of his former prosperity. Or, to their faces, or openly. They do not only reproach me behind my back, but revile and mock me, and make a sport of my calamities, even to my face. I was as a tabret, i.e. I was the peoples delight and darling, and matter of their praise, and entertained by them with applauses, and as it were with instruments of music. Or,
I am as a tabret, i.e. matter of sport and merriment to them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. HeGod. The poetreverentially suppresses the name of God when speaking of calamitiesinflicted.
by-word (Deu 28:37;Psa 69:11). My awful punishmentmakes my name execrated everywhere, as if I must have beensuperlatively bad to have earned it.
aforetime . . . tabretasDavid was honored (1Sa 18:6).Rather from a different Hebrew root, “I am treated to myface as an object of disgust,” literally, “an object to bespit upon in the face” (Nu12:14). So Raca means (Mt5:22) [UMBREIT].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He hath made me also a byword of the people,…. Either Eliphaz, or God; for whatsoever befell him, whether more immediately by the hand of God, or by any instrument, the ascribes it to him, as being suffered in Providence to befall him; as when he became a byword or proverb to the people in common, to whom an example might be set by one or more of Job’s friends. The name of Job is to this day a byword or proverb among men, both for his poverty and his patience; if a man is described as very poor, he is said to be as poor as Job; or if very patient under his afflictions, he is said to be as patient as Job; but as neither of these are to the disgrace of Job, something else seems rather intended here, even something to his reproach; as when a man was represented as a very wicked man, or an hypocrite, it used to be said, such an one is as wicked a creature, and as arrant an hypocrite, as Job:
and aforetime I was as a tabret; the delight of the people, who, when he appeared in the public streets, came out and went before him, singing, and dancing, and beating on tabrets, and such like musical instruments, to express their joy upon the sight of him; but now it was otherwise with him, and he whom they could not sufficiently extol and commend, now knew not well what to say bad enough of him; such a change in the sentiments and conduct of men must needs be very chagrining: or “aforetime I was as a lord”, as Ben Gersom, from the use of the word in Da 3:2; as he supposes; he was like a lord or nobleman, or as one in some high office, and now as the offscouring of all things; or it denotes what he was “before them”, the people, in their sight at present, and should be: the word used is “Tophet”, which Aben Ezra takes to be the name of a place, and as it seems of that place where children were offered to Moloch, and which place was in being, and such practices used by the Canaanites in the times of Job; and this place, which was also called the valley of Hinnom, being afterwards used for hell, led the Targum to paraphrase the words thus, “and hell from within shall I be”; and so Sephorno, in appearance hell to all that see me; and in general it may signify that he was, or should be, avoided, as any unclean place, very ungrateful and disagreeable, as that place was; or as anything abominable, and to be loathed and rejected, and this way go several interpreters s; though some think respect is had to the punishment of tympanization, in which sufferers were beaten upon in several parts of their bodies, as if men were beating upon a tabret or drum, which gave great pain and torment, see Heb 11:35; and with such like cruelty and indignity Job suggests he was or should be used; and therefore begs for a surety, for one to interpose and plead on his behalf; let the carriage of men to him be what it will, that is here referred to; compare with this Ps 69:11.
s Schmidt, Michaelis, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
6 And He hath made me a proverb to the world,
And I became as one in whose face they spit.
7 Then mine eye became dim with grief,
And all my members were like a shadow.
8 The upright were astonished at it,
And the innocent is stirred up over the godless;
9 Nevertheless the righteous holdeth fast on his way,
And he that hath clean hands waxeth stronger and stronger.
Without a question, the subj. of Job 17:6 is God. It is the same thing whether is taken as inf. followed by the subject in the nominative (Ges. 133, 2), or as a subst. (lxx ; Aq., Symm., Theod., ), like , Job 12:4, followed by the gen. subjectivus. is the usual word for ridicule, expressed in parables of a satirical character, e.g., Joe 2:17 (according to which, if were intended as inf., might have been expected); signifies both nations and races, and tribes or people, i.e., members of this and that nation, or in gen. of mankind ( Job 12:2). We have intentionally chosen an ambiguous expression in the translation, for what Job says can be meant of a wide range of people (comp. on Job 2:11 ad fin.), as well as of those in the immediate neighbourhood; the friends themselves represent different tribes; and a perishable gipsy-like troglodyte race, to whom Job is become a derision, is specially described further on (Job 24, 30).
Job 17:6 By (translated by Jer. exemplum , and consequently mistaken for ) the older expositors are reminded of the name of the place where the sacrifices were offered to Moloch in the valley of the sons of Hinnom (whence , , hell), since they explain it by “the fire of hell,” but only from want of a right perception; the standing with it, which nowhere signifies palam, and cannot here (where , although in the signification , follows) signify a multo tempore , shows that here is to be derived from , to spit out (as , gum, from ). This verb certainly cannot be supported in Hebr. and Aram. (since is the commoner word), except two passages in the Talmud ( Nidda 42 a, comp. Sabbath 99 b, and Chethuboth 61 b); but it is confirmed by the Aethiopic and Coptic and an onomatopoetic origin, as the words , , spuere , Germ. speien , etc., show.
(Note: is related to the Sanskrit root shttv , as , , , and the like, to , , , , vid., Kuhn’s Zeitschrift, Bd. iv. Abh. i. (the falling away of s before mutes).)
Cognate is the Arabic taffafa , to treat with contempt, and the interjection tuffan , fie upon thee,
(Note: Almost all modern expositors repeat the remark here, that this tuffan is similar in meaning to , Mat 5:22, while they might learn from Lightfoot that it has nothing to do with , to spit, but is equivalent to , .)
e.g., in the proverb (quoted by Umbreit): aini fihi watuffan aleihi , my eye rests on it wishfully, and yet I feel disgust at it. Therefore (spitting upon the face) is equivalent to , Num 12:14; Deu 25:9 (to spit in the face). In consequence of this deep debasement of the object of scorn and spitting, the brightness and vision of his eye (sense of sight) are become dim (comp. Psa 6:8; Psa 31:10) (always written with , not , in the book of Job), from grief, and his frames, i.e., bodily frame = members (Jer. membra , Targ. incorrectly: features), are become like a shadow all of them, as fleshless and powerless as a shadow, which is only appearance without substance. His suffering, his miserable form ( ), is of such a kind that the upright are astonished ( , to become desolate, silent), and the guiltless (like himself and other innocent sufferers) become excited (here with vexation as in Psa 37:1, as in Job 31:29 with joy) over the godless (who is none the less prosperous); but the righteous holds firm (without allowing himself to be disconcerted by this anomalous condition of things, though impenetrably mysterious) on his way (the way of good to which he has pledged himself), and the pure of hands ( as Pro 22:11, according to another mode of writing with Chateph-Kametz under the and Gaja under the ; comp. Isa 54:9, where the form of writing umigg o or is well authorized) increases ( , of inward increase, as Ecc 1:18) in strength ( only here in the book of Job); i.e., far from allowing suffering to draw him from God to the side of the godless, he gathers strength thereby only still more perseveringly to pursue righteousness of life and purity of conduct, since suffering, especially in connection with such experiences as Job now has with the three friends, drives him to God and makes his communion with Him closer and firmer. These words of Job (if we may be allowed the figure) are like a rocket which shoots above the tragic darkness of the book, lighting it up suddenly, although only for a short time. The confession which breaks through in lyric form in Ps 73 here finds expression of a more brief, sententious kind. The point of Eliphaz’ reproach (Job 15:4), that Job makes void the fear of God, and depreciates communion with God, is destroyed by this confession, and the assurance of Satan (Job 2:5) is confronted by a fact of experience, which, if it should also become manifest in the case of Job, puts to shame and makes void the hope of the evil spirit.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(6) He (i.e., God) hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.Or, I am become as a tabret, or drum openly, i.e., a signal of warning. My case will be fraught with warning for others. But some render it, I am become an open abhorrence, or one in whose face they spit. The general meaning is perfectly clear, though the way it may be expressed varies.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Aforetime I was as a tabret Literally, I am become a spitting upon the face; that is, one into whose face they (the people) spit.
Tabret Hebrew, topheth. Its meaning is determined by kindred dialects for instance, the Arabic taffafa, to spit with contempt. The valley of Topheth was a valley of abomination. Job’s treatment in this respect resembled that of his divine antitype.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 17:6. He hath made me also a by-word But they have marked me out for a by-word of the people; nay, I am even a prodigy in their sight. Heath.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 17:6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
Ver. 6. He hath made me also a byword of the people ] Here Job returns to his old task of setting forth his own misery; for what men are most sensible of that their tongues do most of all run upon. Job is a byword, or a proverb, to this day, for we say, As poor as Job; as of old they said, Iro pauperior, &c. He was become a common proverb, a public mocking stock, yea, he was pro cantione ad tympanum trita, as some sense the next words. And before time (or, to men’s faces) I was (or I am) a tabret; they sing my miseries to the tabret, as a matter of mirth; they compose comedies out of my tragedies; and this greateneth my grief. I am openly a tabret; so Broughton reads it. The Vulgate hath it, I am an example before them. The Chaldea paraphrast, I am as hell before them. The Hebrew word is Tophet, taken afterwards indeed for hell, but not so in Job’s time. The Septuagint, I became a sport, , to them. David met with the like measure, Psa 69:10-11 , and the Church, Lam 2:15 . And Christ on the cross was matter of mirth to the malicious Jews. God had made Job all this. He (that is, God) hath made me, &c.: his name he spares in reverence; but everywhere he acknowledgeth God the author of his troubles, as Mercer here noteth. The whole verse may be read thus; He hath made me also a byword of the people, whereas beforetime I was as a tabret; that is, I am now a scorn to them who delighted in me in my prosperity.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
aforetime = in former times. Compare Rth 4:7,
tabret = a drum. Hebrew. topheth. To the sound and warning of which people gave heed. See note on 1Sa 10:5. After this verse imagine a pause.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Job 17:6-16
Job 17:6-16
CERTAIN OF FINAL VINDICATION; JOB VOWED TO KEEP HIS INTEGRITY
“But he hath made me a byword of the people;
And they spit in my face.
Mine eye is dim also by reason of sorrow,
And all my members are as a shadow.
Upright men shall be astonished at this,
And the innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
Yet shall the righteous hold on his way,
And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.
But as for you all, come on now again;
And I shall not find a wise man among you.
My days are past, my purposes are broken off,
Even the thoughts of my heart.
They change the night into the day:
The light, say they, is near unto the darkness.
If 50took for Sheol as my house;
If I have spread my couch in the darkness;
If I have said to corruption, Thou art my father;
To the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister;
Where then is my hope?
And, as for my hope, who shall see it?
It shall go down to the bars of Sheol,
When once there is rest in the dust.”
Job 17:6-9 here are difficult. “It is hard to find a path through the profusion of ideas here.”
“All my members are as a shadow” (Job 17:7). Barnes paraphrased this, “I am a mere skeleton; I am emaciated and exhausted by my sufferings.”
“Upright men shall be astonished at this” (Job 17:9). “They will be amazed that God has permitted a holy man to suffer such calamity and to be treated in such a manner by his friends.”
“Yet shall the righteous hold on their way” (Job 17:9). “As these words stand, they express Job’s conviction of final victory.” They do even more than that. They constitute Job’s pledge, that in spite of his friends’ unbelief, in spite of his terrible sufferings, in spite of everything, he will continue in the way of righteousness.
“These words confounded the hopes of Satan to destroy Job’s integrity; for they indicate that the righteous (including Job), in spite of the irregular dealings of providence and the slanders of the public (including Job’s friends), will persevere more and more in righteousness.” “The human spirit here rose to the height of moral grandeur.”
The authorship of Job continues to be more and more impossible to attribute to anyone other than to Job himself. No writer during Israel’s captivity, or at any other time than that of Job’s lifetime, could have revealed the innermost thoughts of Job, as do these chapters. Job himself is the author of this great central section of the book; and his words are most certainly inspired of God.
“But as for you all, come on now again; and I shall not find a wise man among you” (Job 17:10). Rawlinson gave the meaning here as, “A challenge to Job’s detractors. `Return, all of you, to your old work of detraction, if you please’; I don’t even care.” Jamieson interpreted it thus: “Return if you have anything really wise to advance, although I doubt it. As yet, I cannot find one wise man among you all.”
“My purposes are broken off” (Job 17:11). No sadder words than these were ever written. “How many unfinished plans are terminated every day! The farmer leaves his plow in the furrow; the lawyer his brief half prepared, the mechanic his work undone, the student his books lying open, the author his writing not finished! How many schemes of wickedness or of benevolence, of fraud or of kindness, or of hatred or mercy are concluded every day by death! Dear reader, soon all your plans, and mine will be forever terminated.
In the concluding verses of this chapter, Job clearly contemplated death, but there is no hint of disrespect for God. “There is a note of acceptance and confidence throughout the passage.” Despite his perplexity and suffering, “One finds this growing sense that all is not as it seems, and that one day, at another time, and another place, he will be vindicated.”
“When once there is rest in the dust” (Job 17:16). Rowley wrote that this rendition does not conform to the Masoretic text, and recommended the RSV which reads: “Where then is my hope … Shall we descend together into the dust”?
E.M. Zerr:
Job 17:6. The original for tabret is from another Hebrew word that means a drum; something to beat upon. When used figuratively it means something to be held in contempt and be cuffed about as a football. The people had been using Job in that way.
Job 17:7. The condition of Job’s eyes was described at Job 16:16. Members means his limbs. They had become so lean from his afflictions and undernourishment that they looked like skeletons. Doubtless his observers said he was but a shadow of himself.
Job 17:8. Job knew that he would receive little comfort from his “friends,” but he believed that upright men would be astonied (astonished) at their hyprocrisy.
Job 17:9. Job had confidence in the conduct of the righteous and believed all such would become stronger and stronger.
Job 17:10. This verse was addressed to the three friends. Come thou is an obsolete way of saying, “see here and listen to me.” He then told them there was riot a wise man among them.
Job 17:11. The misfortunes of Job had changed all of his plans.
Job 17:12. Ordinarily we think of night more unfavorably than of day. The verse is merely a picture of the upside-down experiences that had been forced on Job.
Job 17:13. If Job should think to find solace by looking into the future, all he could see was the grave. His lack of accommodations was like a man who had no light to see how to make his bed.
Job 17:14. In this verse the terms father, mother and sister are used figuratively because they signify nearness to one. Job had been closely connected with corruption and the worms that had been ever creeping over him.
Job 17:15-16. Job asked what hope he had of being relieved of the worms that infested his body. He then answered the question by a reference to the pit which here means the grave. He expected to have no relief from all these pests until his body went with them to the grave, at which time they would rest together in the duet.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
a byword: Job 30:9, 1Ki 9:7, Psa 44:14
aforetime: or, before them
as a tabret: Gen 31:27, Isa 5:12
Reciprocal: Job 12:4 – one mocked
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 17:6. He That is, God, who is generally designed by this pronoun in this book; hath made me also a by-word of the people Or, a proverb, or subject of common talk. My miseries are so great and unprecedented that they fill all people with discourse, and are become proverbial to express extreme misery. And, or rather, but, or although, aforetime I was as a tabret That is, I was the peoples delight and darling, the matter of their praise, and received by them with applauses, and, as it were, with instruments of music. Thus he aggravates his present misery by the mention of his former prosperity.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
17:6 He hath made me also a {g} byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
(g) God has made all the world speak of me, because of my afflictions.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Job’s despair in the face of death 17:6-16
Job proceeded to accuse God of making him a byword (proverb) to others (Job 17:6). Perhaps parents were pointing to him as an example of what happens to a person who lives a hypocritical life. One writer suggested that Job 17:6 should read, "Therefore I repudiate and repent of dust and ashes." [Note: Dale Patrick, "The Translation of Job XVII 6," Vetus Testamentum 26:3 (July 1976):369-71.] This statement would express Job’s intention to abandon mourning. However, most interpreters have not adopted this rendering. Job did not stop mourning.
Bright flashing eyes were and still are a sign of vitality, but Job’s eyes had grown dim because of his suffering (Job 17:7). Nonetheless, Job still believed that his experiences would not discourage other godly people from opposing the wicked (Job 17:8 b).
Again, Job ended his speech with a gloomy reference to the grave and his anticipated death (Job 17:13-16).
"However, at no time did Job ever consider taking his own life or asking someone else to do it for him. Life is a sacred gift from God, and only God can give it and take it away." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 35.]
3. Bildad’s second speech ch. 18
In his second speech, Bildad emphasized the fate of the wicked. There is little that is unique in Bildad’s second speech, but it was harsher than his first speech.
"Bildad’s second speech is straightforward. It is no more than a long diatribe on the fate of the wicked (5-21), preceded by a few reproaches addressed to Job (2-4)." [Note: Andersen, p. 187.]