“God has made a mockery of me among the people; they spit in my face.
Parallel translations
- WEB “But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.
- KJV He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
- 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.
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 44:14You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.
- Job 30:9“Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.
- Isa 5:12The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they don’t respect the work of Yahweh, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.
- Gen 31:27Why did you flee secretly, and deceive me, and didn’t tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tambourine and with harp;
- 1 Kgs 9:7then I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have made holy for my name, out of my sight; and Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
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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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