Job 17
1 “My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me.
My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves [are ready] for me.
2 Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.
[Are there] not mockers with me? and doth not my eye continue in their provocation?
3 Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand. Who else will be my guarantor?
Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who [is] he [that] will strike hands with me?
4 You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.
For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt [them].
5 If a man denounces his friends for a price, the eyes of his children will fail.
He that speaketh flattery to [his] friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
6 He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.
He hath made me also a by-word of the people; and in former time I was as a tabret.
7 My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow.
My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members [are] as a shade.
8 The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent are stirred against the godless.
Upright [men] shall be astonished at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
9 Yet a righteous one holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.
The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
10 But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you.
But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find [one] wise [man] among you.
11 My days have passed; my plans are broken off— even the desires of my heart.
My days are past, my purposes are broken off, [even] the thoughts of my heart.
12 They have turned night into day, making light seem near in the face of darkness.
They change the night into day: the light [is] short because of darkness.
If I wait, the grave [is] my house: I have made my bed in the darkness. (Sheol h7585)
14 and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
I have said to corruption, Thou [art] my father: to the worm, [Thou art] my mother, and my sister.
15 where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me?
And where [is] now my hope? as for my hope, who will see it?
