Commentary for Job 17:18

flicker Heb. נזעכו have sprung away, like (above 6:17) “they jump (נדעכו).”

Is my spirit just on loan to be returned to its Maker at the body's demise, as Eliphaz maintains. No, my days are being ticked off, burying me one by one. There is nothing immortal in man. His whole life is lived here in this world, and every day that goes by is a day gone; irretrievable; buried.

graves are ready for me I am ready for the grave.

even if there were no [Even if] this had not befallen me, that scornful people had gathered with me in my consolations to mock me.

in their provocation Heb. ובהמרותם, like (Ezek. 20:8, 13, 21), “And they provoked (וימרו) me”; (Deut. 9:7), “you have been provoking (ממרים).” [This is] an expression meaning: in their provocation.

my eye...abide My eye, my heart, and my thought abide in them.

Pay heed now O Creator.

give me surety by shaking the hands to debate together, for who is it of these who will shake my hand that it should be good for me?

For Behold. You have hidden their hearts from understanding Therefore, Your glory will not be exalted through them.

No-one takes up Job’s challenge. The notion of the survival and recompense of the soul after death defies inquiry, for the concept of a protean spirit detached from a body is beyond the understanding granted to man by God.⁵Malbim remarks that many believe the soul to be a 'hylic force' which depends for its existence on the life of the body and so dies with it. This is an Aristotelian idea adopted by many medieval thinkers, namely that those functions of the soul which act by means of the body's organs such as sensation, memory, imagination, love and hate etc., perish with the body, the rational faculty alone remaining. By way of contrast, Malbim cites the opinion expressed by the Talmudic sage R. Yonah in Ecclesiastes Rabbah 2:
All the peace of mind that a person enjoys in this world is an emptiness compared to his repose in the world to come. For in this world a person dies and bequeaths his repose to another but of the world to come it is written: 'They shall not build for others to inhabit' (Isaiah 65:22).

flattery Heb. לְחֵלֶק, flattery (חלקלקות). speaks Each one of them [speaks] to his friend, and this will come to them: their children’s eyes will fail.

When considering what will happen after they die, all that people are concerned about is the disposal of their earthly possessions, not the future life of their souls. And for some, their posterity is of such little importance that they bequeath their estates to their lifetime friends rather than to their own children.

and...a drum Heb. תפת, like תּוֹף, a drum.

It being impossible to establish whether or not there is a life after death in which the injustices of this world are corrected, observers of Job's torment will seek alternative explanations. There will be those who say that Job is in truth a righteous person and is being wronged, in which case they will be maligning Providence. There will be others who will say that Job is in fact a sinner and getting his true deserts, in which case they will be unjustly maligning him. Each type of observer will take the lesson of Job to heart in his own way and will choose the explanation most accommodating to him. How much better it would be if justice was seen to be done in this world and we were all saved from the inevitable errors of such moral judgments.

before them lit. to the face; [i.e., to the face] of the people, I am [a drum].

and my limbs namely, the limbs with which I was formed.

will be appalled they will wonder.

The honest person, one who takes things at their face value, will take Job to be a righteous person and put the blame for his suffering on Providence. The innocent will presume Job was a hypocrite and only appeared to be upright, and was being punished for this.

and an innocent one If there is a righteous [man] who hears the mockery of these hypocrites.

will be aroused to quarrel with you.

Yet the righteous holds on his way i.e., every righteous man holds on his way to stand up against the company of the hypocrites.

The righteous person will believe Job is being punished for his sins and for fear that the same might befall him, will become still more of a zealot. The pious devotee, who believes that he is being punished for a lack of piety will redouble his own devotion to God.

But all of them I say to you, “Return now and come now.”

and I will not find any wise man among you insofar as you mock my lamentation.

My days etc. Behold, the days of my prosperity, to which I became accustomed, have passed.

Job reaffirms his belief that death is permanent and final, scorning the notion that death and the decomposition of the body are the progenitors of eternal life.

my purposes Which I had expected to last with prosperity.

the thoughts of my heart have been broken off Heb. מורשי, lit. the inheritances of. The thoughts which my heart gave me to possess, for my heart said that I would inherit good because of my [righteous] way.

They turn night into day These mockers turn night into day for me, for I cannot sleep at night because of the trouble of the mockings.

the light is short lit. קרוב, near, and short for me because of the trouble of the darkness of the night. The light is short; when the sun sets, it appears to me as though a short time ago the day dawned, was shortened, and left. This is like (Gen. 19:20), “this city is recent (קרובה)” it was newly settled recently and like (below 20:5), “That the triumph of the wicked is short (מקרוב),” and like (Deut. 32:17), “new ones that came up of late (מקרוב).”

Since I hope for the grave Heb. אם, like (above 14:5), “If (אם) his days are limited” [See Rashi ad loc.], i.e., since I hope for the grave as my house.

in the darkness I have spread out my couch I have spread out my couch in the grave.

To the pit I have called, ‘You are my father,’ to lodge there many days as though it was my father, since this is my hope.

The Hebrew text has אמי, meaning 'my mother'. But Malbim reads this as אחי, meaning 'my brother', which makes more sense.

Where then is my hope [Where then is] this [my hope]? Why is it deferred, and who will see it to hasten it to me?

The limbs of the grave shall descend Those limbs [of my body] that will ultimately descend to the grave, for indeed they will all rest on the dust.

they rest on the dust Heb. נחת, will lodge, an expression of (Num. 11:26), “the spirit rested (ותנח) upon them.”