Job 17
1 My breath is corrupt: my dayes are cut off, and the graue is readie for me.
“My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me.
2 There are none but mockers with mee, and mine eye continueth in their bitternesse.
Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.
3 Lay downe nowe and put me in suretie for thee: who is hee, that will touch mine hand?
Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand. Who else will be my guarantor?
4 For thou hast hid their heart from vnderstanding: therefore shalt thou not set them vp on hie.
You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.
5 For the eyes of his children shall faile, that speaketh flattery to his friends.
If a man denounces his friends for a price, the eyes of his children will fail.
6 Hee hath also made mee a byword of the people, and I am as a Tabret before them.
He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.
7 Mine eye therefore is dimme for griefe, and all my strength is like a shadowe.
My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow.
8 The righteous shalbe astonied at this, and the innocent shalbe moued against ye hypocrite.
The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent are stirred against the godless.
9 But the righteous wil holde his way, and he whose hands are pure, shall increase his strength.
Yet a righteous one holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.
10 All you therefore turne you, and come nowe, and I shall not finde one wise among you.
But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you.
11 My dayes are past, mine enterprises are broken, and the thoughts of mine heart
My days have passed; my plans are broken off— even the desires of my heart.
12 Haue changed the nyght for the day, and the light that approched, for darkenesse.
They have turned night into day, making light seem near in the face of darkness.
13 Though I hope, yet the graue shall bee mine house, and I shall make my bed in the darke. (Sheol h7585)
If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness, (Sheol h7585)
14 I shall say to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worme, Thou art my mother and my sister.
and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
15 Where is then now mine hope? or who shall consider the thing, that I hoped for?
where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me?
