< Job 17 >
1 My breath is corrupt: my dayes are cut off, and the graue is readie for me.
My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are mine.
2 There are none but mockers with mee, and mine eye continueth in their bitternesse.
Are there not mockers around me? and doth [not] mine eye abide in their provocation?
3 Lay downe nowe and put me in suretie for thee: who is hee, that will touch mine hand?
Lay down now [a pledge], be thou surety for me with thyself: who is he that striketh hands with me?
4 For thou hast hid their heart from vnderstanding: therefore shalt thou not set them vp on hie.
For thou hast hidden their heart from understanding; therefore thou wilt not exalt [them].
5 For the eyes of his children shall faile, that speaketh flattery to his friends.
He that betrayeth friends for a prey — even the eyes of his children shall fail.
6 Hee hath also made mee a byword of the people, and I am as a Tabret before them.
And he hath made me a proverb of the peoples; and I am become one to be spit on in the face.
7 Mine eye therefore is dimme for griefe, and all my strength is like a shadowe.
And mine eye is dim by reason of grief, 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 be stirred up against the ungodly;
9 But the righteous wil holde his way, and he whose hands are pure, shall increase his strength.
But the righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall increase in strength.
10 All you therefore turne you, and come nowe, and I shall not finde one wise among you.
But as for you all, pray come on again; and I shall not find one 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, the cherished 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 imagine] near in presence of 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 wait, Sheol is my house; I spread my bed 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.
I cry to the grave, Thou art 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?
And where is then my hope? yea, 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 [our] rest shall be together in the dust. (Sheol )