Surely there are mockers about me, and my eye dwells on their provocation.
Job has just said his spirit is broken and the grave is ready for him. Now he looks at the three men who came to comfort him and sees mockers instead — and the line about where his eye rests is hard to pin down.
A dying man still under attack
One writer sets the mockery against the grave that already stands open in front of Job:
Samuel RidoutHe is marked for death. His very breath announces the decay for which the grave stands open — and "friends" stand by and mock!
Another writer ties the mockery to how heavy Job's suffering had grown:
F. B. HoleHis distress was so extreme that the statements of his friends seemed to him nothing but mockery.
The comforters had become the mockers
The men Job calls mockers are the three friends who came to comfort him. Did they know what they had become?
Leslie M. GrantWas it true that mockers were with him? They might think they were comforters, but were they not mocking?
Another writer measures how far their speeches had missed the mark. By this point Job could no longer hear them as counsel at all:
F. B. HoleSo extreme was it that the statements of his friends seemed to him but mockery.
What his eye "dwells on"
The clause about Job's eye can be read two ways. The difference turns on the words that open it. One writer lays out both readings, and says what the mockery amounted to:
William KellyThe next clause is unclear, mainly because of its opening words. Taken as "if not," they imply that, unless he were mistaken, he was subject to the strangest illusions. These were so constantly present that his eye could dwell on nothing else. But others understand the sense to be a form of strong affirmation: "Truly mockery is with me, and on their quarrelling, or stubbornness, my eye dwells." The mockery was their effort to make him, a dying man, confess what he knew was unfounded, and what existed only in their evil suspicions.
Either way, the picture is of a man who cannot look away. The same writer's rendering of the line keeps both halves in view — the mockery beside him, and his eye fixed on their contention:
William KellyMy spirit is broken, my days are extinct, / For me the graves! / Truly mockeries are with me, / And my eye dwells on their contention.
Three men — and everyone else
The three friends were the visible mockers, but many others thought as they did. Behind the mockery lies a fixed idea about how God runs the world:
William KellySurely there were three of them. And if that was true of these three men who had been his friends, what did all the people around him feel? You may depend on it: just as bad as the three friends, or worse. We must not suppose it stops with them. Working on this thought, the natural mind concludes that God's moral government is exact now. It does not know that God is waiting instead for His direct government, when Christ will rule. He alone is able to hold the reins and govern.
One writer points out what the mockers took advantage of:
Samuel RidoutIn all his sufferings Job felt the hand of God on him, as he had often declared. He connects this with the scorn of these contemptible men, who took advantage of God's dealings to vent their hatred on him.
A better Sufferer under the same treatment
Job's protest is honest, but it is not the last word. Later in the book Job again complains of mockery, and one writer sets his reaction beside Christ's:
Samuel RidoutScorn them as he may, Job has to admit that they mock him, that he is their song and their byword. We can only compare his anger at their taunts with the meekness of Him "who when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not." All through life our Lord had the shadows of man's rejection falling on Him. But in His darkest hour they poured out their curses and their taunts. … He was not a man lamenting over former grandeur. He was One who had given up His glory of His own will, in love for His enemies. At any moment He could have delivered Himself from His troubles, by an appeal to His Father or by putting forth His own power.
Summary
- Dying. Job's spirit is broken and his grave stands open. That is what makes the mockery so bitter.
- Mockers. The three came as comforters; what they delivered felt like mockery, whether or not they saw it.
- Eye. The clause reads two ways: illusions he cannot look away from, or his eye fixed on their stubborn quarrelling.
- Crowd. The three spoke for many. The natural mind assumes God's government is exact now, and forgets the day when Christ will rule.
- Contrast. Set Job's anger beside One who, when reviled, did not revile back — though He could have freed Himself at any moment.