Job 17

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¹“My spirit is crushed, and my life is nearly snuffed out. The grave is ready to receive me. ✦ ²I am surrounded by mockers. I watch how bitterly they taunt me. ✦ ³“You must defend my innocence, O God, since no one else will stand up for me. ✦ ⁴You have closed their minds to understanding, but do not let them triumph. ✦ ⁵They betray their friends for their own advantage, so let their children faint with hunger. ✦ ⁶“God has made a mockery of me among the people; they spit in my face. ✦ ⁷My eyes are swollen with weeping, and I am but a shadow of my former self. ✦ ⁸The virtuous are horrified when they see me. The innocent rise up against the ungodly. ✦ ⁹The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger. ✦ ¹⁰“As for all of you, come back with a better argument, though I still won’t find a wise man among you. ✦ ¹¹My days are over. My hopes have disappeared. My heart’s desires are broken. ✦ ¹²These men say that night is day; they claim that the darkness is light. ✦ ¹³What if I go to the grave and make my bed in darkness? ✦ ¹⁴What if I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister? ✦ ¹⁵Where then is my hope? Can anyone find it? ✦ ¹⁶No, my hope will go down with me to the grave. We will rest together in the dust!” ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

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.

Where this chapter connects

Isa 38 ·4 Job 7 ·4 Job 17 ·3 Job 19 ·3 Job 21 ·3 Job 6 ·3 Job 16 ·3 Job 30 ·3

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 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.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Job 17YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Job 17David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Job 17Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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