The Meaning of Job 17:2 Explained

Job 17:2

KJV: Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?

YLT: If not -- mockeries are with me. And in their provocations mine eye lodgeth.

Darby: Are there not mockers around me? and doth not mine eye abide in their provocation?

ASV: Surely there are mockers with me, And mine eye dwelleth upon their provocation.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

[Are there] not mockers  with me? and doth not mine eye  continue  in their provocation? 

What does Job 17:2 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 17:1-16 - "the Bars Of Sheol"
Job's continued complaint of his friends, Job 17:1-9
He avows that he could bear his awful calamities if only he were delivered from their mockery; and asks that God would arbitrate between him and them. God is the supreme Judge, and Job asks Him to become his surety against the recriminations of those who so shamefully misjudged him. There is no other course for hunted souls than appeal from man to God in the person of Jesus. At the close of this paragraph he insists that amid a whirlwind of trouble the righteous must hold on his way and keep his hands clean. If any should read these words whose path has dipped down into the valley of the shadow, let them hold on their way. Go on doing the will of God, so far as you know it, and it will bring you out under His heaven of love.
Job's gloomy anticipations of the future, Job 17:10-16
For him there was a grave of darkness and gloom. Men had not as yet been begotten again unto a living hope by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The soul must descend to the bars of Sheol, Job 17:16, r.v. What a contrast to our Christian hope! There is no need for us to claim the pit for father and the worm for sister! In the Father's house are many mansions. The sufferings of the present are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed! Our kin are not in the dust. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 17

1  Job appeals from men to God
6  The unmerciful dealing of men with the afflicted may astonish,
9  but not discourage the righteous
11  His hope is not in life, but in death

What do the individual words in Job 17:2 mean?

Surely not [Are] mockers with me and on their provocation does not dwell my eye
אִם־ לֹ֣א הֲ֭תֻלִים עִמָּדִ֑י ؟ וּ֝בְהַמְּרוֹתָ֗ם תָּלַ֥ן עֵינִֽי

אִם־  Surely 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: אִם  
Sense: if.
הֲ֭תֻלִים  [Are]  mockers 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural
Root: הֲתֻלִים  
Sense: mockery, mocker.
עִמָּדִ֑י  with  me 
Parse: Preposition, first person common singular
Root: עִמָּד  
Sense: with.
؟ וּ֝בְהַמְּרוֹתָ֗ם  and  on  their  provocation 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Preposition-b, Verb, Hifil, Infinitive construct, third person masculine plural
Root: מָרָה  
Sense: to be contentious, be rebellious, be refractory, be disobedient towards, be rebellious against.
תָּלַ֥ן  does  not  dwell 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect Jussive, third person feminine singular
Root: לוּן 
Sense: to lodge, stop over, pass the night, abide.
עֵינִֽי  my  eye 
Parse: Noun, common singular construct, first person common singular
Root: עֹונָה 
Sense: eye.