Job 17
1 My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.
I perish, carried away by the wind, and I seek for burial, and obtain [it] not.
2 Surely there are mockers with me, and my eye dwells upon their provocation.
Weary I entreat; and what have I done? and strangers have stolen my goods.
3 Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself. Who is there that will strike hands with me?
Who is this? let him join hands with me.
4 For thou have hid their heart from understanding. Therefore thou shall not exalt them.
For you have hid their heart from wisdom; therefore you shall not exalt them.
5 He who denounces his friends for a prey, even the eyes of his sons shall fail.
He shall promise mischief to [his] companions: but [their] eyes have failed for [their] children.
6 But he has made me a byword of the people, and they spit in my face.
But you has made me a byword amount the nations, and I am become a scorn to them.
7 My eye also is dim because of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
For my eyes are dimmed through pain; I have been grievously beset by all.
8 Upright men shall be astonished at this, and the innocent shall stir himself up against the profane.
Wonder has seized true men upon this; and let the just rise up against the transgressor.
9 Yet the righteous shall hold on his way. And he who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
But let the faithful hold on his own way, and let him that is pure of hands take courage.
10 But as for you all, come on now again, and I shall not find a wise man among you.
Howbeit, do you all strengthen [yourselves] and come now, for I do not find truth in you.
11 My days are past. My purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
My days have passed in groaning, and my heart-strings are broken.
12 They change the night into day. The light, they say, is near to the darkness.
I have turned the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
For if I remain, Hades is my habitation: and my bed has been made in darkness. (Sheol h7585)
14 if I have said to corruption, Thou are my father, to the worm, My mother, and my sister,
I have called upon death to be my father, and corruption [to be] my mother and sister.
15 where then is my hope? And as for my hope, who shall see it?
Where then is yet my hope? or [where] shall I see my good?
