Job 17
1 My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.
My spirit is broken, my days are cut short, the grave is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers with me, and my eye dwells upon their provocation.
Yet truly those that mock are with me, and on their offendings must my eye rest.
3 Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself. Who is there that will strike hands with me?
And thou, [Creator!] attend, I pray thee, be my surety with thyself: who else is there that would strike hands with me?
4 For thou have hid their heart from understanding. Therefore thou shall not exalt them.
For thou hast concealed their heart against intelligence: therefore art thou not exalted [through them].
5 He who denounces his friends for a prey, even the eyes of his sons shall fail.
Every one of them speaketh deceptively to his friends: may also the eyes of his children fail.
6 But he has made me a byword of the people, and they spit in my face.
And he hath placed me here as a by-word unto nations; and I become openly as a place of abomination.
7 My eye also is dim because of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
Therefore is my eye dim from vexation, and my limbs are all of them like a shadow.
8 Upright men shall be astonished at this, and the innocent shall stir himself up against the profane.
Upright men must be astonished at this, and the innocent must arouse himself against the hypocrite.
9 Yet the righteous shall hold on his way. And he who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
Yet will the righteous hold firmly on to his way; and he that is clean of hands will acquire additional strength.
10 But as for you all, come on now again, and I shall not find a wise man among you.
But all of you, do only return, and come but [to me]: and yet I shall not find among you one wise man.
11 My days are past. My purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
My days are past, my resolves are broken off, [even the thoughts]—the possessions of my heart.
12 They change the night into day. The light, they say, is near to the darkness.
These would change the night into day, the light as near in the presence of darkness.—
When I hope for the nether world as my house; in the darkness have I spread my couch; (Sheol h7585)
14 if I have said to corruption, Thou are my father, to the worm, My mother, and my sister,
When I call to corruption, Thou art my father: Thou art my mother, and my sister, to the worms.
15 where then is my hope? And as for my hope, who shall see it?
Ay, where is then my hope? as for my hope, who will see it [fulfilled]?
