Job 17
1 My spirit is crushed; my life is extinguished; the grave is ready for me.
“My spirit has been destroyed, My days extinguished—graves [are] for me.
2 Mockers surround me. I see how bitterly they ridicule me.
If not—mockeries [are] with me. And my eye lodges in their provocations.
3 God, you need to put down a pledge for me with yourself, for who else will be my guarantor?
Now place my pledge with You; Who is he that strikes hand with me?
4 You have closed their minds to understanding, so do not let them win!
For You have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore You do not exalt them.
5 They betray friends to gain benefit for themselves and their children suffer for it.
For a portion he shows friendship, And the eyes of his sons are consumed.
6 He has made me a proverb of ridicule among the people; they spit in my face.
And He set me up for a proverb of the peoples, And I am a wonder before them.
7 My eyes are worn out from crying and my body is a shadow of its former self.
And my eye is dim from sorrow, And my members—all of them—as a shadow.
8 People who think they are good are shocked to see me. Those who are innocent are troubled by the godless.
The upright are astonished at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the profane.
9 Those who are right keep going, and those whose hands are clean grow stronger and stronger.
And the righteous lays hold [on] his way, And the clean of hands adds 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 please return and come in, all of you, And I do not find a wise man among you.
11 My life is over. My plans are gone. My heart is broken.
My days have passed by, My plans have been broken off, The possessions of my heart!
12 They turn night into day, and say that daylight is close to darkness.
They appoint night for day, Light [is] near because of darkness.
If I wait—Sheol [is] my house, In darkness I have spread out my bed. (Sheol h7585)
14 Should I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister?
To corruption I have called: You [are] my father. To the worm: My mother and my sister.
15 So then where is my hope? Can anyone see any hope for me?
And where [is] my hope now? Indeed, my hope, who beholds it?
