Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
Parallel translations
- WEB Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.
- BSB Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.
- NKJV Are not mockers with me? And does not my eye dwell on their provocation?
- NASB “Mockers are certainly with me, And my eye gazes on their provocation.
- NLT I am surrounded by mockers. I watch how bitterly they taunt me.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job is surrounded by mockers and cannot escape their provocation. Even in dying he endures scorn.
Overview
Job laments that those around him mock rather than mourn, and his eyes must continually behold their contempt. The added insult of derision deepens his isolation. This experience of the righteous reviled in his suffering finds its ultimate parallel in Christ, mocked even as he hung dying (Matthew 27:39-44), the innocent surrounded by scoffers.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 1 Sam 1:6–7And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb.
- Job 16:20My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
- Job 12:4I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn.
- Matt 27:39–44And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads,
- Ps 25:13His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.
- Ps 35:14–16I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.
- Job 13:9Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?
- Ps 91:1He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
- Job 21:3Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 17:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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