Job 17:2 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Are there not mockers with me?— Were it not so, I have sarcasms enough in store, and I could spend the whole night unmoved at their aggravations. Heath. See chap. Job 24:25. It is very plain to me, says Peters, that as Job in the fourth verse directs his speech to God, so in the two preceding he points at and addresses himself to his mistaken friends: Are there not mockers with me? Lay down now (some earnest or pledge), put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me? i.e. Which of you, who thus mock and insult me, will venture to try your cause before the Supreme Judge? No; they shew a want of understanding in thus rashly censuring me; and were they to bring their cause before thee, O God, thou wouldst not exalt them; i.e. they would be cast in the trial. This sense, we see, is very obvious and easy: the change of the person addressed, and the several breaks in the sentence, only shew the earnestness of the speaker, and are both natural and elegant.