to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
night
לַ֭יְלָהLay.lah
H3915
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
day
לְי֣וֹםle.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
light
א֝֗וֹר'or
H216
illumination or (concrete) luminary (in every sense · noun, common feminine singular absolute
short
קָר֥וֹבka.Rov
H7138
near (in place · adjective, masculine singular absolute
because
מִפְּנֵיmi.pe.nei-
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
darkness
חֹֽשֶׁךְCho.shekh
H2822
the dark · noun, common 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
Deuteronomy 28:67 In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wh…
Job 7:3-4 So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.
Job 7:13-14 When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;
Job 24:14-16 The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.
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…
They--namely, "my friends."
change the night into day--that is, would try to persuade me of the change of my misery into joy, which is impossible [UMBREIT] (Job 11:17); (but) the light of prosperity (could it be enjoyed) would be short because of the darkness of adversity. Or better for "short," the Hebrew "near"; "and the light of new prosperity should be near in the face of (before) the darkness of death"; that is, they would persuade me that light is near, even though darkness approaches.
John Gill on Job 17:12
They change the night into day,.... Meaning either his friends, by what they had said unto him, or the thoughts of his heart, which comes to the same sense; these being in the night season employed about what had been said to him in the day, insomuch that he could get no sleep, the night was as broad day unto him; or they put the day before the night, contrary to the order of nature, as Noldius (z) observes, whereas the night is before the day, Genesis 1:5; his friends promising him long days, and an age clearer than noon day, as bright as the morning, Job 11:17; when the night of death was coming on, and he was hastening to the dark and silent grave:
the light is short because of darkness;…
"They took the night for the day," the wicked. This is why it is said, "Woe to those who call evil what is good, and what is evil; which turn light into darkness, and darkness into light (1). "
Ver. 12. They have changed the night into day. For 'the thoughts being scattered change night into day,' in that it is sometimes more grateful to the righteous through adversity to undergo sufferings, rather than as the effect of prosperity to be harassed with the charge of earthly ministering. But because they have learnt by paying attention that both adversity passes away, and prosperity dawns again, it is fitly added; And again after darkness I look for light. For 'the light is looked for after darkness,' in that after the night of the present life, the light eternal is discerned, or adversity and prospersity do so alternate here, that they do not cease to succeed one another by turns. Whence it comes to pass that even in the light night is suspected, and in the night light is presumed on; as when it is written, In the day of prosperity be not forgetful of affliction, and in the day of affliction be not forgetful of prosperity. But mark, forasmuch as we have been redeemed by the grace of our Maker, we henceforth have this boon of heavenly bestowal, that when we are removed from dwelling in our flesh, we are at once carried off to receive heavenly rewards; in that since our Creator and Redeemer, penetrating the bars of hell, brought out from thence the souls of the Elect, He does not permit us to go there, from whence He has already by descending set others free. But they who were brought into this world before His Coming, whatsoever eminency of righteousness they may have had, could not on being divested of the body at once be admitted into the bosom of the heavenly country; seeing that He had not as yet come, Who by His own descending should unloose the bars of hell, and place the souls of the righteous henceforth in their everlasting seat.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
on Job 17:10-12
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…
Job gave up on his comforters (6:15-21; 13:4-5; 16:2-3; cp. 12:2) and believed he would die a hopeless death.
Rashi on Job 17:12
They turn night into day These mockers turn night into day for me, for I cannot sleep at night because of the trouble of the mockings.
the light is short lit. קרוב, near, and short for me because of the trouble of the darkness of the night. The light is short; when the sun sets, it appears to me as though a short time ago the day dawned, was shortened, and left. This is like (Gen. 19:20), “this city is recent (קרובה)” it was newly settled recently and like (below 20:5), “That the triumph of the wicked is short (מקרוב),” and like (Deut. 32:17), “new ones that came up of late (מקרוב).”
