Job 17
1 My spirit is crushed; my life is extinguished; the grave is ready for me.
My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves [are ready] for me.
2 Mockers surround me. I see how bitterly they ridicule me.
[Are there] not mockers with me? and doth not my eye continue in their provocation?
3 God, you need to put down a pledge for me with yourself, for who else will be my guarantor?
Lay down now, put me in a surety 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!
For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt [them].
5 They betray friends to gain benefit for themselves and their children suffer for it.
He that speaketh flattery to [his] friends, even 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 hath made me also a by-word of the people; and in former time I was as a tabret.
7 My eyes are worn out from crying and my body is a shadow of its former self.
My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members [are] as a shade.
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 astonished at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
9 Those who are right keep going, and those whose hands are clean grow stronger and stronger.
The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
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, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find [one] wise [man] among you.
11 My life is over. My plans are gone. My heart is broken.
My days are past, my purposes are broken off, [even] the thoughts of my heart.
12 They turn night into day, and say that daylight is close to darkness.
They change the night into day: the light [is] short because of darkness.
If I wait, the grave [is] my house: I have made my bed in the darkness. (Sheol h7585)
14 Should I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister?
I have said to corruption, Thou [art] my father: to the worm, [Thou art] my mother, and my sister.
15 So then where is my hope? Can anyone see any hope for me?
And where [is] now my hope? as for my hope, who will see it?
