Job 17:6

6 And He hath made me a proverb to the world, And I became as one in whose face they spit. 7 Then mine eye became dim with grief, And all my members were like a shadow. 8 The upright were astonished at it, And the innocent is stirred up over the godless; 9 Nevertheless the righteous holdeth fast on his way, And he that hath clean hands waxeth stronger and stronger. Without a question, the subj. of Job 17:6 is God. It is the same thing whether משׁל is taken as inf. followed by the subject in the nominative (Ges. 133, 2), or as a subst. (lxx θρύλλημα; Aq., Symm., Theod., παραβολήν), like שׂחוק, Job 12:4, followed by the gen. subjectivus. משׁל is the usual word for ridicule, expressed in parables of a satirical character, e.g., Joe 2:17 (according to which, if משׁל were intended as inf., משׁל־בּי עמּים might have been expected); עמּים signifies both nations and races, and tribes or people, i.e., members of this and that nation, or in gen. of mankind (Job 12:2). We have intentionally chosen an ambiguous expression in the translation, for what Job says can be meant of a wide range of people (comp. on Job 2:11 ad fin.), as well as of those in the immediate neighbourhood; the friends themselves represent different tribes; and a perishable gipsy-like troglodyte race, to whom Job is become a derision, is specially described further on (Job 24, 30). Job 17:6 By תּפת (translated by Jer. exemplum, and consequently mistaken for מופת) the older expositors are reminded of the name of the place where the sacrifices were offered to Moloch in the valley of the sons of Hinnom (whence גּיהנּם, γέεννα, hell), since they explain it by "the fire of hell," but only from want of a right perception; the לפנים standing with it, which nowhere signifies palam, and cannot here (where אהיה, althou…

In this chapter, I. Job reflects upon the harsh censures which his friends had passed upon him, and looking upon himself as a dying man (Job 17:1), he appeals to God, and begs of him speedily to appear for him, and right him, because they had wronged him, and he knew not how to right himself (Job 17:2-7). But he hopes that, though it should be a surprise, it will be no stumbling-block, to good people, to see him thus abused (Job 17:8, Job 17:9). II. He reflects upon the vain hopes they had fed him with, that he should yet see good days, showing that his days were just at an end, and with his body all his hopes would be buried in the dust (Job 17:10-16). His friends becoming strange to him, which greatly grieved him, he makes death and the grave familiar to him, which yielded him some comfort.

17:6 To spit in someone’s face was even more insulting than a slap (16:10) because spit made the person unclean (Num 12:14).