Job 17
1 “My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me.
My spirit is crushed; my life is extinguished; the grave is ready for me.
2 Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.
Mockers surround me. I see how bitterly they ridicule me.
3 Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand. Who else will be my guarantor?
God, you need to put down a pledge for me with yourself, for who else will be my guarantor?
4 You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.
You have closed their minds to understanding, so do not let them win!
5 If a man denounces his friends for a price, the eyes of his children will fail.
They betray friends to gain benefit for themselves and their children suffer for it.
6 He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.
He has made me a proverb of ridicule among the people; they spit in my face.
7 My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow.
My eyes are worn out from crying and my body is a shadow of its former self.
8 The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent are stirred against the godless.
People who think they are good are shocked to see me. Those who are innocent are troubled by the godless.
9 Yet a righteous one holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.
Those who are right keep going, and those whose hands are clean grow stronger and stronger.
10 But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you.
Why don't you come back and repeat again what you've been saying?—yet I still won't find a wise man among you!
11 My days have passed; my plans are broken off— even the desires of my heart.
My life is over. My plans are gone. My heart is broken.
12 They have turned night into day, making light seem near in the face of darkness.
They turn night into day, and say that daylight is close to darkness.
What am I looking for? To make my home in Sheol, to make my bed in darkness? (Sheol h7585)
14 and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
Should I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister?
15 where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me?
So then where is my hope? Can anyone see any hope for me?
