Job 17
1 My spirit is crushed; my life is extinguished; the grave is ready for me.
My breath is exhausted; My days are at an end; The grave is ready for me.
2 Mockers surround me. I see how bitterly they ridicule me.
Are not revilers before me? And doth not my eye dwell upon their provocations?
3 God, you need to put down a pledge for me with yourself, for who else will be my guarantor?
Give a pledge, I pray thee; be thou a surety for me with thee; Who is he that will strike hands with me?
4 You have closed their minds to understanding, so do not let them win!
Behold, thou hast blinded their understanding; Therefore thou wilt not suffer them to prevail.
5 They betray friends to gain benefit for themselves and their children suffer for it.
He who delivereth up his friends as a prey, —The eyes of his children shall fail.
6 He has made me a proverb of ridicule among the people; they spit in my face.
He made me the by-word of the people; Yea, I have become their abhorrence.
7 My eyes are worn out from crying and my body is a shadow of its former self.
My eye therefore is dim with sorrow, And all my limbs are as 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 will be astonished at this, And the innocent will rouse themselves against the wicked.
9 Those who are right keep going, and those whose hands are clean grow stronger and stronger.
The righteous will also hold on his way, And he that hath clean hands will gather 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 as for you all, return, I pray! I find not yet among you one wise man.
11 My life is over. My plans are gone. My heart is broken.
My days are at an end; My plans are broken off; Even the treasures of my heart.
12 They turn night into day, and say that daylight is close to darkness.
Night hath become day to me; The light bordereth on darkness.
Yea, I look to the grave as my home; I have made my bed in darkness. (Sheol h7585)
14 Should I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister?
I say to the pit, Thou art my father! And to the worm, My mother! and, My sister!
15 So then where is my hope? Can anyone see any hope for me?
Where then is my hope? Yea, my hope, who shall see it?
