< Job 17 >
1 My breath is corrupt: my dayes are cut off, and the graue is readie for me.
My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.
2 There are none but mockers with mee, and mine eye continueth in their bitternesse.
Surely there are mockers with me, and my eye dwells upon their provocation.
3 Lay downe nowe and put me in suretie for thee: who is hee, that will touch mine hand?
Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself. Who is there that will strike hands with me?
4 For thou hast hid their heart from vnderstanding: therefore shalt thou not set them vp on hie.
For thou have hid their heart from understanding. Therefore thou shall not exalt them.
5 For the eyes of his children shall faile, that speaketh flattery to his friends.
He who denounces his friends for a prey, even the eyes of his sons shall fail.
6 Hee hath also made mee a byword of the people, and I am as a Tabret before them.
But he has made me a byword of the people, and they spit in my face.
7 Mine eye therefore is dimme for griefe, and all my strength is like a shadowe.
My eye also is dim because of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
8 The righteous shalbe astonied at this, and the innocent shalbe moued against ye hypocrite.
Upright men shall be astonished at this, and the innocent shall stir himself up against the profane.
9 But the righteous wil holde his way, and he whose hands are pure, shall increase his strength.
Yet the righteous shall hold on his way. And he who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
10 All you therefore turne you, and come nowe, and I shall not finde one wise among you.
But as for you all, come on now again, and I shall not find a wise man among you.
11 My dayes are past, mine enterprises are broken, and the thoughts of mine heart
My days are past. My purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
12 Haue changed the nyght for the day, and the light that approched, for darkenesse.
They change the night into day. The light, they say, is near to the darkness.
13 Though I hope, yet the graue shall bee mine house, and I shall make my bed in the darke. (Sheol )
If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness, (Sheol )
14 I shall say to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worme, Thou art my mother and my sister.
if I have said to corruption, Thou are my father, to the worm, My mother, and my sister,
15 Where is then now mine hope? or who shall consider the thing, that I hoped for?
where then is my hope? And as for my hope, who shall see it?
16 They shall goe downe into the bottome of the pit: surely it shall lye together in the dust. (Sheol )
It shall go down to the bars of Sheol when once there is rest in the dust. (Sheol )