properly · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
flattery
לְ֭חֵלֶקLe.che.lek
H2506
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
friends
רֵעִ֑יםre.'Im
H7453
an associate (more or less close) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
eyes
וְעֵינֵ֖יve.'ei.Nei
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + noun, common feminine dual construct
children
בָנָ֣יוva.Nav
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
fail
תִּכְלֶֽנָהtikh.Le.nah
H3615
to end · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine plural
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
Psalms 12:2-3 They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
Proverbs 20:19 He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.
Proverbs 29:5 A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet.
Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon…
Deuteronomy 28:65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a tremblin…
1 Kings 11:12 Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father’s sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son.
Job 11:20 But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.
Job 32:21-22 Let me not, I pray you, accept any man’s person, neither let me give flattering titles unto man.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 17:1-9
Job's discourse is here somewhat broken and interrupted, and he passes suddenly from one thing to another, as is usual with men in trouble; but we may reduce what is here said to three heads: -
I. The deplorable condition which poor Job was now in, which he describes, to aggravate the great unkindness of his friends to him and to justify his own complaints. Let us see what his case was.
1. He was a dying man, Job 17:1. He had said (Job 16:22), "When a few years have come, I shall go that long journey." But here he corrects himself. "Why do I talk of years to come? Alas! I am just setting out on that journey, am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. My breath is a…
The Hebrew for "flattery" is "smoothness"; then it came to mean a prey divided by lot, because a smooth stone was used in casting the lots (Deu 18:8), "a portion" (Gen 14:24). Therefore translate, "He that delivers up his friend as a prey (which the conduct of my friends implies that they would do), even the eyes," &c. [NOYES] (Job 11:20). Job says this as to the sinner's children, retorting upon their reproach as to the cutting off of his (Job 5:4; Job 15:30). This accords with the Old Testament dispensation of legal retribution (Exo 20:5).
John Gill on Job 17:5
He that speaketh flattery to his friends,.... As Job's friends did to him when they promised great outward prosperity, and a restoration to his former state, and to a greater affluence upon his repentance and reformation; or when they spoke deceitfully for God, pretending great regard to the honour of his justice and holiness, and therefore insisted on it that he must be a wicked man and an hypocrite, that was afflicted by him, as Job was:
even the eyes of his children shall fail; so hateful are some sins to God, and particularly deceitful tongues, and flattering lips, that he will punish them in their posterity; the eyes of their children shall fail for want of sustenance, and while they a…
"A party has received the evils shared. Part of Israel has been blinded (1); it is. or because they regarded it as evil what Christ had announced to them, to the point of saying, "He seduces the multitude;" 2 or because the prophecies, which predicted Israel's blindness, were not fulfilled. in all the people, but only in one part. "And the eyes of his children are darkened. Those whom prodigies confounded, and to whom it was said, "If it be in the name of Beelzebud that I cast out demons, in whose name do your children drive them out?" "
Ver. 5. He promiseth prey to his friends; and the eyes of his children shall fail. After that blessed Job had uttered a sentence relating to the multitude of the wicked, i.e. the body of our old enemy; he directly shifts the sentence to the very leader of them, i.e. the head of all the children of perdition, and returns from the plural to the singular number: for the devil and all wicked people are so one body, that it very often happens that the body is rated with the name of the head, and the head designated by the title of the body. Thus the body is rated with the name of the head, when it is said of a bad man, And one of you is a devil. And again the head is designated by the title of the body, when it is said of the apostate Angel himself, A man that is an enemy hath done this. Thus the prince of all the wicked has some for 'associates' and some as 'children.' For who are his associates, but those apostate Angels, who fell with him from the seat of the heavenly country? or what others has he as children, saving bad men, who are begotten by his evil persuading in the practice of wickedness. Whence too it is said by the voice of Truth to unbelievers, Ye are of your father the devil. So that evil author of error promises 'prey' to his 'associates,' in that he promises the evil spirits the souls of bad men to be seized at their latter end; and the eyes of his children shall fail, in that while he sets on the aims of men to look for earthly things only, he causes them to love that which they cannot keep for long: for neither can the bent of misdirected love remain, when it appears that both that which he loves, and he himself, who loves it, are tending to nought at a rapid rate. It may also be, that by 'the associates' perhaps are understood all those that are most cruel and already full of every kind of wickedness; but by the sons, those who being still deluded by beguiling promises, are being nourished up to increasing of wickedness; that henceforth the devil should as it were by the title of wickedness, have these as his 'associates,' who now no longer have whereunto to grow in perdition, while these he has as sons, whom he suckles with promises, that they may go on advancing to worse. But 'the eyes of his children shall fail,' in that the aims of the wicked fall to the ground, when all that they go after here, they leave behind, and there suffer without…
Dictionary and topics
Flattery · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 17:3-5
3 Lay down now, be bondsman for me with Thyself;
Who else should furnish surety to me?!
4 For Thou hast closed their heart from understanding,
Therefore wilt Thou not give authority to them.
5 He who giveth his friends for spoil,
The eyes of his children shall languish.
It is unnecessary, with Reiske and Olsh., to read ערבני (pone quaeso arrhabonem meum = pro me) in order that שׂימה may not stand without an object; שׂימה has this meaning included in it, and the ארבני which follows shows that neither לבך (Ralbag) nor ידך (Carey) is to be supplied; accordingly שׂים here, like Arab. wḍ‛ (wâḍ‛), and in the classics both τιθέναι and ponere, signifies alone the laying down of a pledge. Treated…
defend my innocence, O God (literally please keep my pledge with yourself): A pledge (Hebrew ‘erabon) can be a deposit guaranteeing payment (Gen 38:17-20; Exod 22:26-27; Deut 24:10-14; see Prov 20:16; 27:13), so this might suggest atonement. It might also be another reference to Job’s desire for an advocate to plead his case (see study note on Job 16:19-21).
Rashi on Job 17:5
flattery Heb. לְחֵלֶק, flattery (חלקלקות). speaks Each one of them [speaks] to his friend, and this will come to them: their children’s eyes will fail.
