Job 10:17

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹⁴ If I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity. ¹⁵ If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still shall not lift up my head, Being filled with disgrace, And conscious of my affliction. ¹⁶ If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me. ¹⁷ You renew your witnesses against me, And increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me. ¹⁸ "'Why, then, have you brought me forth out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me. ¹⁹ I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. ²⁰ Aren't my days few? Cease then, Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort, ²¹ Before I go where I shall not return from, To the land of darkness and of the shadow of death; ²² The land dark as midnight, Of the shadow of death, without any order, Where the light is as midnight.'"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

witnesses: that is, plagues, Job 16:8, Ruth 1:21

changes: I am as if attacked by successive troops; if one company be wearied, another succeeds to the attack. Psalms 55:19, Jeremiah 48:11, Zephaniah 1:12

war: Job 16:11-16, Job 19:6-11

Reciprocal: Exodus 11:1 - Yet will Job 16:9 - teareth me Psalms 42:7 - Deep calleth Psalms 73:14 - For all Isaiah 38:13 - as a lion

Cross-References

Genesis 34:2
Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Thou renewest thy witnesses against me,.... Not the devils, as some, nor Job's friends, as others; but rather afflictions, which were daily renewed, and frequently repeated, new troubles coming continually one upon another; which were brought as fresh witnesses against him, which made the suit tiresome to him, the trial to last the longer, which he wished was at end, that the decisive sentence might be pronounced and executed, and he be dispatched at once; but instead of that the affair was protracted by bringing in one witness after another, or one affliction upon the back of another, which were brought as witnesses "before him" a, as some render it; either to accuse him, and convince of sin, or as proofs of God's indignation against him, as in the next clause; or they were witnesses against him with the profane world, and even with his friends, who from hence concluded he must have been, and was, a wicked man, that had so many and such great afflictions laid upon him, and these continued and repeated; of which they judged these were full and sufficient proofs and testimonies. Schultens renders it, "thy incursions", and interprets it of instruments of hunting, as nets and the like, to which afflictions may be compared:

and increasest thine indignation upon me; the tokens of it, by increasing afflictions, and the sense of it in his mind; for from his afflictions, and the increase of them, he judged of the indignation of God upon him, or "against him" b, and the increase of it; as these were daily renewed, and were greater and greater, so was the sense he had of the wrath and displeasure of God against him; see Job 6:4;

changes and war [are] against me; or "with me", or "upon me" c; by changes are meant the various afflictive providences which attended him, which were repeated, or succeeded one another in their turns; great changes he had undergone in his estate and substance, from the greatest man in the east now become the poorest; in his family, his servants and children being destroyed; in his body, being covered with boils; and in his mind, being filled with a sense of God's displeasure, and under the hidings of his face: and "war" was against him on every side, not only the law in his members was warring against the law of his mind, his corruptions working powerfully under his afflictions; and he was conflicting with Satan, and his principalities and powers; but even his friends were at war with him, yea, God himself, in his opinion, counted and treated him as an enemy. Job was in a warfare state, and his afflictions came upon him like troops, and charged him one after another; or his afflictions were like an "army" d as the word may be rendered, many and numerous; and these were either repeated, or new ones succeeded others; different afflictions in their turns came upon him, and particularly an army of worms were continually running to and fro upon him; see Job 7:5; the word is rendered an "appointed time", Job 7:1; and so some take it here, and may signify that all the changes and vicissitudes in life he passed through, the various afflictions that came upon him, were at the set and appointed time, as well as there was an appointed time for him on earth, until his last change came.

a נגדי "coram me", Pagninus, Montanus, Beza, Mercerus, Schmidt, Schultens. b עמדי "adversus me", Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Schultens so Vatablus. c עמי "mecum", Pagninus, Montanus, Bolducius, Morcerus, Schmidt; "apud me", Beza, Piscator, Cocceius. d צבא "militia", Montanus, Bolducius; "exercitus", Beza, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus, Schmidt, Schultens.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thou renewest thy witnesses against me - Margin, “that is, plagues.” The Hebrew is, “thy witnesses” - עדיך ‛ēdeykā. So the Vulgate. The Septuagint is, “renewing against me my examination,” τὴν ἐξέτασίν μου tēn ecetasin mou. Rabbi Levi supposes that the plague of the leprosy is intended. But the true meaning seems to be, that God sent upon him calamities which were regarded by his friends as “proofs” or “witnesses” that he was wicked, the public and solemn attestation of God, as they supposed, to the truth that he was eminently a bad man. New proofs of this kind were constantly occurring in his augmenting and protracted sorrows, and he could not answer the arguments which were brought from them by his friends.

Changes and war are against me - Or rather, are “with me,” עמי ‛ı̂my. There were with him such reverses of condition as laid the foundation for the argument which they had urged with so much pertinacity and force that he was punished by God. The word rendered “changes” (חליפה chălı̂yphâh) means properly “changes,” or exchanges, and is applied to garments, 2Ki 5:5, 2 Kings 5:22-23. It may be used also of soldiers keeping watch until they are relieved by a succeeding guard; see the note at Job 14:14. Here it is not improbably employed in the sense of a succession of attacks made on him. One succeeds another, as if platoon after platoon, to use the modern terms, or phalanx after phalanx, should come up against him. As soon as one had discharged its arrows, another succeeded in its place; or as soon as one became ex hausted, it was followed by a fresh recruit. All this Job could not endure. The succession wearied him, and he could not bear it. Dr. Good supposes that the word refers to the skirmishes by which a battle is usually introduced, in which two armies attempt to gall each other before they are engaged. But the true idea, as it seems to me, is, that afflictions succeeded each other as soldiers on a watch, or in a battle, relieve each other. When one set is exhausted on duty, it is succeeded by another. Or, when in battle one company has discharged its weapons, or is exhausted, it is succeeded by those who are brought fresh into the field. The word rendered “war” (צבא tsâbâ') properly means an army or a host; see the note at Job 7:1. Here it means that a whole host had rushed upon him. Not only had he been galled by the succession, the relief-guard of calamities, the attacks which had followed each other from an advanced guard, or from scouts sent out to skirmish, but the whole army was upon him. A whole host of calamities came rushing upon him alone, and he could not endure them.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 10:17. Thou renewest thy witnesses — In this speech of Job he is ever referring to trials in courts of judicature, and almost all his terms are forensic. Thou bringest witnesses in continual succession to confound and convict me.

Changes and war — I am as if attacked by successive troops; one company being wearied, another succeeds to the attack, so that I am harassed by continual warfare.