Job 17
1 My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are mine.
My spirit is crushed; my life is extinguished; the grave is ready for me.
2 Are there not mockers around me? and doth [not] mine eye abide in their provocation?
Mockers surround me. I see how bitterly they ridicule me.
3 Lay down now [a pledge], be thou surety for me with thyself: who is he that striketh hands with me?
God, you need to put down a pledge for me with yourself, for who else will be my guarantor?
4 For thou hast hidden their heart from understanding; therefore thou wilt not exalt [them].
You have closed their minds to understanding, so do not let them win!
5 He that betrayeth friends for a prey — even the eyes of his children shall fail.
They betray friends to gain benefit for themselves and their children suffer for it.
6 And he hath made me a proverb of the peoples; and I am become one to be spit on in the face.
He has made me a proverb of ridicule among the people; they spit in my face.
7 And mine eye is dim by reason of grief, and all my members are as a shadow.
My eyes are worn out from crying and my body is a shadow of its former self.
8 Upright men [shall be] astonished at this, and the innocent shall be stirred up against the ungodly;
People who think they are good are shocked to see me. Those who are innocent are troubled by the godless.
9 But the righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall increase in strength.
Those who are right keep going, and those whose hands are clean grow stronger and stronger.
10 But as for you all, pray come on again; and I shall not find one 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 are past, my purposes are broken off, the cherished thoughts of my heart.
My life is over. My plans are gone. My heart is broken.
12 They change the night into day; the light [they imagine] near in presence of the 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 I cry to the grave, Thou art my father! to the worm, My mother, and my sister!
Should I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister?
15 And where is then my hope? yea, my hope, who shall see it?
So then where is my hope? Can anyone see any hope for me?
