He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
Parallel translations
- WEB “But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.
- BSB He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.
- NKJV “But He has made me a byword of the people, And I have become one in whose face men spit.
- NASB ¶“But He has made me a proverb among the people, And I am one at whom people spit.
- NLT “God has made a mockery of me among the people; they spit in my face.
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 has become a byword and an object of public spitting and contempt. He is openly shamed before all.
Overview
Job laments that God has made him a proverb of derision, one whom people spit at in scorn. His suffering has turned him into a spectacle of shame. This public humiliation of the righteous anticipates the treatment of Christ, who was spat upon and made a reproach (Isaiah 50:6; Mark 14:65), bearing shame for the sake of his people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Ps 44:14Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
- Job 30:9And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.
- Isa 5:12And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.
- Gen 31:27Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp?
- 1 Kgs 9:7Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:
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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 17:6 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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