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Job 17 Bible study: Where then is my hope?
Job's "Be collateral for me" (17:3) is, in Hebrew, the same word in the same form as Hezekiah's "Be my security" to the Lord (Isaiah 38:14). And stronger in "will grow stronger and stronger" (17:9), a word found only here, Strong's derives from the verb of Job's "I would strengthen you" (16:5).
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“Yet the righteous will hold to his way. He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.”
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“In his writing from when he had been sick, Hezekiah asked the Lord, "Be my security."”
Is that in Job 17, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
"The grave is ready for me"
Every word of this chapter is Job's. His answer began, "Then Job answered" (16:1), and this chapter is its end; the next heading is "Then Bildad the Shuhite answered" (18:1). He goes on, "My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct and the grave is ready for me" (17:1) (tap grave). Eliphaz had spoken to him of his grave differently: "You will come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season" (5:26). Then Job says, "Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation" (17:2) (tap mockers). The word behind mockers is used nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Job doesn't name the mockers in this verse, and these notes don't name them for him.
Where it leads to Jesus
"By your endurance"
Job 17:9leads toLuke 21:19
Job says,"Yet the righteous will hold to his way. He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger" (17:9). Speaking to his hearers of persecution to come "for my name’s sake" (Luke 21:12), Jesus said, "By your endurance you will win your lives" (Luke 21:19). Luke doesn't name Job, so setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on a shared subject: holding on in the right way under trouble. Some read the two together for that subject: Job speaks of the righteous who hold to their way, and Jesus says those who endure will win their lives. Others read each in its own setting: 17:9 is Job's word in his answer to Eliphaz, and the verse doesn't say whether he means himself, while Jesus spoke of what his hearers would face for his name. Job 17 names no persecutor, and neither reading makes Job's friends the persecutors of Luke 21 or Job a picture of Jesus.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Job 17
That was a taste
The rest of Job 17 is waiting in Favor
- "Who is there who will strike hands with me?"
- A byword, and the righteous who holds on
- "If I look for Sheol as my house"
- Looking for light
- Striking hands in Proverbs
- 8 questions as you read
- 13 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Job 17 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
עָרַבaravsay a-RAV
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "take on pledge, give in pledge, exchange". Strong's: "give to be security". "Be collateral for me with yourself" (17:3); this is its only use in Job. Judah used it of Benjamin: "I’ll be collateral for him" (Genesis 43:9). Hezekiah, in his writing from when he had been sick (Isaiah 38:9), asked the Lord, "Be my security" (Isaiah 38:14): in Hebrew that is the same word, in the same form, as Job's Be collateral for me. A psalm uses it too: "Ensure your servant’s well-being" (Psalm 119:122).
For your group
Job 17 Bible study questions
- 1"My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow" (17:7). Job's sorrow shows in his eye and in all his members. How do you notice when someone near you is carrying more than they say, and what do you do?
- 2"Who is there who will strike hands with me?" (17:3). Job asks for someone to pledge himself for him. Who has stood with you when you had nothing to offer back, and who might need you to stand with them now?
- 3"Yet the righteous will hold to his way" (17:9). Job says it while he still can't see where his hope is (17:15). What helps you keep doing what is right when you can't yet see how things will turn out?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Job 17 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Can I read Job 17 straight away?
Favor takes the Bible as one story, in order, so you'll reach Job 17 with everything that leads up to it in view. Start from Genesis, or meet Jesus first in the Gospels. You can read the text of any chapter in Favor's Look up whenever you like.
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No. Many people read on their own. If you'd like to read with others, start a Bible study and share one link. Everyone's answers stay private until you meet.
I've never really read the Bible. Is this for me?
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The World English Bible, a modern, readable translation in the public domain. God's name appears as "the LORD", as in most English Bibles.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home