I am surrounded by mockers. I watch how bitterly they taunt me.
Parallel translations
- WEB Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.
- KJV Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in 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.
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 1:6–7Her rival provoked her severely, to irritate her, because Yahweh had shut up her womb.
- Job 16:20My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God,
- Job 12:4I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.
- Matt 27:39–44Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads,
- Ps 25:13His soul shall dwell at ease. His offspring shall inherit the land.
- Ps 35:14–16I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.
- Job 13:9Is it good that he should search you out? Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?
- Ps 91:1He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
- Job 21:3Allow me, and I also will speak; After 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.