Job 17
1 My spirit is crushed; my life is extinguished; the grave is ready for me.
My spirit is broken, my days are cut short, the grave is ready for me.
2 Mockers surround me. I see how bitterly they ridicule me.
Yet truly those that mock are with me, and on their offendings must my eye rest.
3 God, you need to put down a pledge for me with yourself, for who else will be my guarantor?
And thou, [Creator!] attend, I pray thee, be my surety with thyself: who else is there that would strike hands with me?
4 You have closed their minds to understanding, so do not let them win!
For thou hast concealed their heart against intelligence: therefore art thou not exalted [through them].
5 They betray friends to gain benefit for themselves and their children suffer for it.
Every one of them speaketh deceptively to his friends: may also the eyes of his children fail.
6 He has made me a proverb of ridicule among the people; 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 eyes are worn out from crying and my body is a shadow of its former self.
Therefore is my eye dim from vexation, and my limbs are all of them like a shadow.
8 People who think they are good are shocked to see me. Those who are innocent are troubled by the godless.
Upright men must be astonished at this, and the innocent must arouse himself against the hypocrite.
9 Those who are right keep going, and those whose hands are clean 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 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!
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 life is over. My plans are gone. My heart is broken.
My days are past, my resolves are broken off, [even the thoughts]—the possessions of my heart.
12 They turn night into day, and say that daylight is close to 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 Should I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister?
When I call to corruption, Thou art my father: Thou art my mother, and my sister, to the worms.
15 So then where is my hope? Can anyone see any hope for me?
Ay, where is then my hope? as for my hope, who will see it [fulfilled]?
