“He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit.
Job is answering friends who have turned into accusers. Here he says what he has become in other people's eyes, and two questions follow: who made him that, and what does a suffering man do when his shame becomes public property?
The Words Themselves
The second half of the verse is hard to translate. The key word turns up nowhere else except as a name, and one writer reads the clause as a second picture of the same disgrace.
The Bible TreasuryJob 17:6, "And in the past I was as a tabret." In the previous clause Job speaks of himself as a byword. It is best to take this clause as describing something similar. The meaning then would be, "I am one whose face is spit upon" — someone they view with disgust. The word occurs elsewhere only as a proper name.
The first word is equally strong. Job is not merely talked about; he has become a fixed saying, a stock example people reach for.
F. B. HoleAmong the people generally he had become a "byword," or a "proverb," and the second clause of that 6th verse is elsewhere translated, "I am become one to be spit on in the face."
From Music To Mockery
Reading the older wording, one writer hears Job setting his past against his present.
William KellyJob mourns his condition in a very solemn way, and compares it with what he once was. "In the past I was as a tabret," that is, "I made music, as it were, in the ears of people as I had to do with them." But now he is a byword not just of the three friends, but "of the people!"
Who Made Him A Byword
Job does not blame his neighbours. He says God put him there. One writer adds that the spitting may be a picture rather than a literal scene, and that Job's own words still look forward to strength.
Leslie M. GrantInstead of people flattering him, Job now thought that God had made him a byword of the people (v.6), one in whose face men would spit. If this was not literally true, it was true figuratively... As he says, "he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger" (v.9). This is true, but at the time did Job feel stronger and stronger? Thank God, his experience would end with him made stronger.
The Complaint Weighed
Not every writer takes Job's words as simply right. One sees Job damaging his own case here, even while he holds to a steady path.
Samuel RidoutAgain he damages his testimony by blaming his misery on God as well as on man, and by saying that upright people are stumbled by his sufferings. Yet despite it all, Job keeps on his steady way. But in answering the attack of his friends, there is a tone of self-satisfaction that does not quite fit a truly humble man.
Commentators differ in tone here. One hears faith reaching for a good end. The other hears a man too pleased with himself. Both see him holding his course.
The Tables Turned
The shame does not get the last word. Job answers his accusers by hinting that the label may belong to them.
F. B. HoleThis would astonish upright men. Job seems to turn the tables on his critics, suggesting that they might prove to be the hypocrites, while the righteous would hold on his way and the man with clean hands would grow stronger. As for these "friends," there was not one wise man among them.
What A Believer Has That Job Did Not
Job's chapter ends staring into the grave, and one writer sets that against what belongs to us now.
William KellyHe had made up his mind for death, and for the complete collapse of every plan he valued... if he was to hope, the grave was his house, his bed was spread in darkness, and decay and the worm were his closest relatives. Where, then, was his hope?... What a blessed contrast to such gloomy words of a believer is the strong encouragement we have! We have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us, and we hold it as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.
Summary
- Byword. Job has become a proverb among people in general, not just among his three friends.
- Spitting. The difficult second clause is best read as more of the same: he is one whose face is spit upon, someone people view with disgust.
- God's hand. Job traces the disgrace to God, not to his neighbours. Whether literal or figurative, the shame is real. Ridout adds that blaming God for it damages Job's testimony.
- Turned. Job answers the label by suggesting his accusers may be the hypocrites. Meanwhile the righteous holds on his way, and clean hands grow stronger.
- Hope. Job's chapter ends with the grave as his house. The encouragement now is a hope that holds like an anchor, sure and steadfast.