Job 17
1 “My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me.
I perish, carried away by the wind, and I seek for burial, and obtain [it] not.
2 Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.
Weary I entreat; and what have I done? and strangers have stolen my goods.
3 Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand. Who else will be my guarantor?
Who is this? let him join hands with me.
4 You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.
For you have hid their heart from wisdom; therefore you shall not exalt them.
5 If a man denounces his friends for a price, the eyes of his children will fail.
He shall promise mischief to [his] companions: but [their] eyes have failed for [their] children.
6 He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.
But you has made me a byword amount the nations, and I am become a scorn to them.
7 My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow.
For my eyes are dimmed through pain; I have been grievously beset by all.
8 The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent are stirred against the godless.
Wonder has seized true men upon this; and let the just rise up against the transgressor.
9 Yet a righteous one holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.
But let the faithful hold on his own way, and let him that is pure of hands take courage.
10 But come back and try again, all of you. For I will 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 have passed; my plans are broken off— even the desires of my heart.
My days have passed in groaning, and my heart-strings are broken.
12 They have turned night into day, making light seem near in the face of 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 and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘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? Who can see any hope for me?
Where then is yet my hope? or [where] shall I see my good?
