Job 17 · The Lantern

Job Prepares for Death

My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished, graves are mine.

"My spirit is broken" in bitterness and pain, because my ulcers torture me, or, on the other hand, because of my friends, who are ready to burst out against their friend.

Chap. xvii. Ver. 1. My spirit shall be wasted to thinness. 'My spirit is wasted to thinness,' by the fear of judgment; in that the minds of the Elect, the more they feel themselves to be approaching the final Judgment, tremble so much the more fearfully in the searching of their own selves; and if they ever find in themselves any carnal thoughts, they consume them by the fervou…

Job had shown above the great number of his afflictions, (16:14) the humiliation of his mind, (16:16) the innocence (16:18) and the brevity of a life definitively lost, (16:23) and by which the wordiness of his friends is conclusively proved. In this chapter then he intends to prove the premises and finally conclude their ignorance.

Surely mockeries are with me, and my eye lodges on their provocations.

Set down a pledge for me with yourself. Who else would strike hands with me?

For you have hidden their heart from understanding; therefore you will not let them triumph.

One who denounces friends for a share — the eyes of his sons will fail.

And he has set me up as a byword of the peoples, and I have become one they spit in the face of.

And my eye has grown dim from vexation, and all my limbs are like a shadow.

The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent rouses himself against the godless.

I cannot say, in fact, that I receive mercy, which is the only privilege common to those who suffer. On the contrary, I am a laughingstock for the senseless; the righteous are frightened because of me.

Ver. 8. Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite. [LITERAL INTERPRETATION] In this place, 'the innocent' is taken for the as yet imperfectly righteous, who, as yet but commencing in good ways, though he is not minded to do mischief to others, yet is not at all able himself to do things that are perfect; and because the…

One could think that this misting of sight is against justice and this anger against innocence. So to reject this he then says, "the just will be astonished at this," as if to say: The just are rightly astonished when they see the doctrine of evil men, and above he called this astonishment misting over.

And the righteous holds to his way, and the one clean of hands adds strength.

Ver. 9. The righteous also shall hold on his way, and to clean hands he shall add strength. On considering the hypocrite, 'the righteous holds on his way,' in that whilst he sees that it is by a wicked will that he obtains the things that are of the world, he is himself tied and bound the stronger to the love of heavenly things, knowing that to good desires eternal rewards shal…

Who will have the gift of fortitude? All now flee for a trifle, for the loss of some small temporal thing, or some slight advantage; and why? Because they do not have fortitude. But Job himself says: "The just man will hold to his way." The way of Christ himself is that a man walk purely and with fortitude.

Since, as has been said, zealous anger disturbs the soul but does not blind it, so the just man is astonished or misted over by zeal which does not withdraw from justice. He expresses this saying, "the just will preserve his course," because he does not desert it from zealous anger.

But all of you — turn back, and come now; and I shall not find a wise man among you.

Ver. 10. But as for you all, do ye turn and come now. Which same words of exhortation he properly frames to the Elect, whom he calls to the eternal world; who are bidden in two ways, viz. that they should 'turn,' and that they should 'come;' 'turn' by faith, 'come' by practice.

It is necessary that a judge have clarity of knowledge. How would I judge well concerning an unknown matter? Hence when the friends of Job argued against him that he was not just, saying: A just God does not punish the just, and yet He punishes you, therefore you are not just—they wished to judge concerning hidden things.

After Job presented the arguments by which he refuted the opinion of Eliphaz, he collects here what he has said and orders it to demonstrate his thesis. First, he gets their attention saying, "Therefore" since what I have said is true, "all of you," you and your fathers, who have arrayed yourselves against me, "convert" from your errors, "and come" to consider the truth.

My days have passed, my plans are broken off — the desires of my heart.

Ver. 11. My days are past away, my thoughts are scattered, racking my heart. [ALLEGORICAL / MORAL INTERPRETATION] The Holy Church of the Elect sees that the spaces of her life pass in periods of day and night, in that it is hers in adversity to have 'a night,' and in prosperity, 'a day.' For there riseth as it were light unto her from the tranquillity of peace, and night from t…

In this he really intends to show their stupidity when they promised the consolation of temporal prosperity to him. (5:15, 8:6, 11:17) He first proposes against their promises that the time of his life has already in great part elapsed, and he therefore says, "my days have passed away." Then he shows the evils which he suffers when he continues, "my thoughts have been utterly s…

They set night for day; light is near, they say, in the face of darkness.

If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I have spread out my bed in the darkness,

if I have called to the pit, “You are my father,” and to the maggot, “My mother and my sister” —

where then is my hope? And my hope — who will see it?

Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?

Why do we build palaces? Why do we care for the drapery of beds and for the different garments? Why do we add estate to estate, strangle the poor and strike the needy? Why do we want to increase those riches that will not come together with us? And why do we not bend our ears to the truthful oracles?

Ver. 16. All of mine shall descend into the lowest hell. Whereas it appears that among those below the righteous are held bound not in places of punishment, but in the bosom of tranquillity above, an important question springs up before us, why it is that blessed Job declares, saying, All of mine shall descend into the lowest hell; who even if before the Advent of the Mediator…

Against the objection that perhaps he would be given temporal prosperity by God even in the grave, he then says almost jeeringly, "Into the last depths of hell will all of my possessions descend," since whatever is mine will be lowered into the grave which is all that remains for me. "Do you think that at least there I will have rest," i.e.

Job17

Job Prepares for Death