Job 17
1 My spirit is crushed; my life is extinguished; the grave is ready for me.
My spirit, is broken, My days, are extinguished, Graves, are left me.
2 Mockers surround me. I see how bitterly they ridicule me.
Verily there are mockers, with me! And, on their insults, mine eye doth rest.
3 God, you need to put down a pledge for me with yourself, for who else will be my guarantor?
Appoint it, I pray thee—be thou surety for me with thyself, Who is there that, on my side, can pledge himself?
4 You have closed their minds to understanding, so do not let them win!
For, their heart, hast thou kept back from understanding, On this account, thou wilt not exalt them.
5 They betray friends to gain benefit for themselves and their children suffer for it.
He that, for a share, denounceth friends, even, the eyes of his children, shall be dim.
6 He has made me a proverb of ridicule among the people; they spit in my face.
But he hath set me, as the byword of peoples, And, one to be spit on in the face, do I become.
7 My eyes are worn out from crying and my body is a shadow of its former self.
Therefore hath mine eye become dim from vexation, and, my members, are like a shadow, all of them.
8 People who think they are good are shocked to see me. Those who are innocent are troubled by the godless.
Upright men shall be astounded over this, and, the innocent, against the impious, shall rouse themselves.
9 Those who are right keep going, and those whose hands are clean grow stronger and stronger.
That the righteous may hold on his way, and, the clean of hands, increase in 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 indeed, as for them all, will ye bethink yourselves and enter into it, I pray you? Or shall I not find, among you, one who is wise?
11 My life is over. My plans are gone. My heart is broken.
My days, are past, my purposes, are broken off, the possessions of my heart!
12 They turn night into day, and say that daylight is close to darkness.
Night for day, they appoint, Light, is near, by reason of darkness!
If I wait for hades as my house, in darkness, have spread out my couch; (Sheol h7585)
14 Should I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister?
To corruption, have exclaimed, My father, thou! My mother! and My sister! to the worm.
15 So then where is my hope? Can anyone see any hope for me?
Where then would be my hope? And, as for my blessedness, who should see it!
