(2) Mine eye continue in their provocation?--"It sees, and can see nothing else; has nothing else to look upon ": a bitter reproach against his friends.
Verse 2. - Are there not mockers with me? literally, mockeries - the abstract for the concrete. (For the sentiment, comp. Job 16:20 and Job 30:1-14.) And doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?i.e. "Have I anything else to look upon? Are not the mockers always about me, always provoking me?"
17:1-9 Job reflects upon the harsh censures his friends had passed upon him, and, looking on himself as a dying man, he appeals to God. Our time is ending. It concerns us carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for eternity. We see the good use the righteous should make of Job's afflictions from God, from enemies, and from friends. Instead of being discouraged in the service of God, by the hard usage this faithful servant of God met with, they should be made bold to proceed and persevere therein. Those who keep their eye upon heaven as their end, will keep their feet in the paths of religion as their way, whatever difficulties and discouragements they may meet with.
Are there not mockers with me?.... Meaning not irreligious persons, such as make a mock at sin, a jest of religion, a laugh at good men, sneer at the doctrines and ordinances of God, and scoff at things future, as the coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and a future judgment; with whom it is very uncomfortable to be, as well as with any sort of profane men, and such there were no doubt in Job's time; but he seems to design his friends, by whom be thought himself mocked, and who were, as he imagined, scorners of him, Job 12:4; and therefore for this reason entreats his case might be heard, and his cause pleaded:
and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation? or "lodge all night" (q); his sense is, that they were continually provoking him with their words, their scoffs and jeers, their censures and calumnies, and the weak reasons and arguments they made use of to support their charges and suspicions; these dwelt upon his mind not only in the daytime but in the night, so that he could not get a wink of sleep for them; their words were so teasing and distressing, and they acted such a cruel part to him, and stuck so close to him, and hung upon his thoughts, that he could not get clear of them in the night season; but his mind ran upon them, which kept him waking, that he could not close his eyelids for thinking of them.
and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation? or "lodge all night" (q); his sense is, that they were continually provoking him with their words, their scoffs and jeers, their censures and calumnies, and the weak reasons and arguments they made use of to support their charges and suspicions; these dwelt upon his mind not only in the daytime but in the night, so that he could not get a wink of sleep for them; their words were so teasing and distressing, and they acted such a cruel part to him, and stuck so close to him, and hung upon his thoughts, that he could not get clear of them in the night season; but his mind ran upon them, which kept him waking, that he could not close his eyelids for thinking of them.
(q) "pernoctat", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, Schmidt, Michaelis, Schultens.