Job 17:1-2

1 My breath [ruwach] is corrupt [chabal], my days [yowm] are extinct [za`ak], the graves [qeber] are ready for me.

2 Are there not mockers [hathol] with me? and doth not mine eye [`ayin] continue [luwn] in their provocation [marah]? KJV-Interlinear

1 'My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished, The grave is ready for me. 2 'Surely mockers are with me, And my eye gazes on their provocation. NASB

The spirit and breath are terms often used interchangeably to describe human life.

Isa. 2:22

22 Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils; NASB

Gen. 2:7

7 Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. NASB

The life of man is not found in his DNA, but within his soul. Biological life is not human life. Biological life is perpetuated in the womb with the male seed and the female egg, that is tantamount to being formed of the dust of the earth, but human life comes at the point of physical birth, when God breathes, or exhales, the breath of life, and man inhales human life in to his soul. The baby cries with its first breath and human life begins.

Jobs health is so bad, that he feels like the very life within him is near extinguished. His breath is foul, but that comes with severely failing health. His breath is corrupted, and that is an occurrence that accompanies the end of a body's useful life.

And even though Job feels that his death is just minutes away, or at least not too far off in the distance, his friends offer promises of a continued life if he will only repent of his hidden sins.

And here we see that Job sees right through their hypocrisy. He calls them mockers, and from that, we learn a little more about their character.

Jobs state is obvious to all. His friends stated that their original intention was to bring comfort to Job, however their eyes gaze on him as many folks eyes gaze on him. The gaze here means to take up a residence, to stare. We would call it rubbernecking in our present day.

Folks drive by an accident and they slow way down to stare, to gaze, to investigate with their eyes, to examine, to see the carnage or whatever there is to see.

And so it is in Jobs case. People stare at him, with long stares. They take up residence in their stares, to watch, to see the show, to be entertained in an odd sort of way.

Jobs friends originally came to comfort, then they took up a weeklong deathwatch. They are anticipating Jobs death and they are fascinated by the process. They offer something that they cannot possibly guarantee, but they are more interested in hearing or witnessing Jobs emotional breakdown in confession, knowing full well that he is guilty and that he will die anyway. They just want to hear the great man spill out his guts, so to speak.

Thus, he calls them mockers, ridiculers, deriders, disdainers. Job is not fooled by their rhetoric or their pretended deception.

Besides, if Job were indeed dying, then why would anyone take advantage of his condition just to promote their own curiosity or ego, or for that matter to prove his guilt. What is that to them?

But that is exactly what rubber-necker's do. Out of curiosity, whether intentionally or unintentionally, their eyes take up residence on an event for self-entertainment, to issue that expression, or that look. You know 'that look,' wherein they have discovered your failure or your wickedness. And now they know that you know, that they know, and they are watching and waiting.

And to what purpose? Evil man, regardless of what his good intentions may have been initially, eventually will always turn selfish and for no good purpose. This is true in social life, in business, in politics, in any place where human interaction exists. Aren't the gossip magazines full of this kind of stuff?

And what does anyone gain from it all? Nothing good.

One cannot promote oneself or find fulfillment in ones own life, based on the misfortune of another.

The only real promotion in life comes from God. The only real fulfillment in life comes from Bible doctrine in the soul. The only real completeness in life comes from spiritual advancement to maturity.

Now is the time to post a prayer.