to turn back (hence · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
now
וּבֹ֣אוּu.Vo.'u
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
find
אֶמְצָ֖א'em.Tza'
H4672
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
wise
חָכָֽםcha.Kham
H2450
wise · adjective, masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 6:29 Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; yea, return again, my righteousness is in it.
Job 42:7 And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee,…
Job 12:2 No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
Job 15:9 What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?
Job 17:4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
Job 32:9 Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment.
Malachi 3:18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
1 Corinthians 1:20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 17:10–end
Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hopes of his return to a prosperous estate again; now he here shows,
I. That it was their folly to talk so (Job 17:10): "Return, and come now, be convinced that you are in an error, and let me persuade you to be of my mind; for I cannot find one wise man among you, that knows how to explain the difficulties of God's providence or how to apply the consolations of his promises." Those do not go wisely about the work of comforting the afflicted who fetch their comforts from the possibility of their recovery and enlargement in this world; though that is not to be despaired of, it is at the best uncertain; and if it should fail, as perhaps it ma…
return--If you have anything to advance really wise, though I doubt it, recommence your speech. For as yet I cannot find one wise man among you all.
John Gill on Job 17:10
But as for you all, do ye return, and come now,.... This is an address to his three friends, all and everyone of them, who he perceived were nettled with his reply, and were either departing, or preparing for a rejoinder; and being conscious of his innocence, and satisfied of the goodness of his cause, and having nothing to fear from them, boldly challenges them to go on with the dispute; for though they were three to one, he was a match for them all; or else he calls upon them to turn and repent of what they had said to him, to relinquish the bad notions and ill opinion they had of him, and to retract their hard speeches and unjust censures, and return to a friendly and amicable conversatio…
10 But only come again all of you!
I shall not find a wise man among you. -
11 My days are past, My purposes cut off,
The cherished thoughts of my heart, -
12 Ye explain night as day,
Light is near when darkness sets in.
The truly righteous man, even if in the midst of his affliction he should see destruction before him, does not however forsake God. But (nevertheless) ye - he exclaims to the friends, who promise him a long and prosperous life if he will only humble himself as a sinner who is receiving punishment - repeat again and again your hortatory words on penitence! a wise man who might be able to see into my real condition, I shall not find among you. He means that they deceive them…
The Church Fathers
"For he hath not found the truth in you. To all grace is necessary not only to the Jews, but also to other peoples.
Ver. 10. But as for you all, do ye turn and come now. Which same words of exhortation he properly frames to the Elect, whom he calls to the eternal world; who are bidden in two ways, viz. that they should 'turn,' and that they should 'come;' 'turn' by faith, 'come' by practice. Or indeed that they 'turn' by abandoning evil deeds, and 'come' by doing good ones; as it is written, Depart from evil, and do good: but that is wonderful which is added, And may I not find one wise man among you. For what does this mean, that he bids them to wisdom, and yet wishes that he may not find them wise, saving that they cannot come to true wisdom, who are deceived in confidence in their own false wisdom? Concerning whom it is written, Woe unto you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own sight; and to whom it is said again, Be not wise with your own selves; whence that same great preacher sought that those, whom he found carnally wise, in order that they might attain true wisdom, should first become foolish; saying, If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. And 'Truth' saith by Itself, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. And so because they that are wise in themselves cannot come to true wisdom, blessed Job, being anxious for the conversion of his hearers, rightly desires that he may not 'find any wise man among them.' As if he said to them in plain speech; 'Learn to be foolish in your own selves, that ye may be truly wise in God.'
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
