< Job 17 >
1 My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.
I perish, carried away by the wind, and I seek for burial, and obtain [it] not.
2 Surely there are mockers with me, and mine eye abideth in their provocation.
Weary I entreat; and what have I done? and strangers have stolen my goods.
3 Give now a pledge, be surety for me with Thyself; who else is there that will strike hands with me?
Who is this? let him join hands with me.
4 For Thou hast hid their heart from understanding; therefore shalt Thou not exalt them.
For you have hid their heart from wisdom; therefore you shall not exalt them.
5 He that denounceth his friends for the sake of flattery, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
He shall promise mischief to [his] companions: but [their] eyes have failed for [their] children.
6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and I am become one in whose face they spit.
But you has made me a byword amount the nations, and I am become a scorn to them.
7 Mine eye also is dimmed by reason of vexation, and all my members are as a shadow.
For my eyes are dimmed through pain; I have been grievously beset by all.
8 Upright men are astonished at this, and the innocent stirreth up himself against the godless.
Wonder has seized true men upon this; and let the just rise up against the transgressor.
9 Yet the righteous holdeth on his way, and he that hath clean hands waxeth stronger and stronger.
But let the faithful hold on his own way, and let him that is pure of hands take courage.
10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now; and I shall not find a wise man among you.
Howbeit, do you all strengthen [yourselves] and come now, for I do not find truth in you.
11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
My days have passed in groaning, and my heart-strings are broken.
12 They change the night into day; the light is short because of darkness.
I have turned the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
13 If I look for the nether-world as my house; if I have spread my couch in the darkness; (Sheol )
For if I remain, Hades is my habitation: and my bed has been made in darkness. (Sheol )
14 If I have said to corruption: 'Thou art my father', to the worm: 'Thou art my mother, and my sister';
I have called upon death to be my father, and corruption [to be] my mother and sister.
15 Where then is my hope? And as for my hope, who shall see it?
Where then is yet my hope? or [where] shall I see my good?
16 They shall go down to the bars of the nether-world, when we are at rest together in the dust. (Sheol )
Will they go down with me to Hades, or shall we go down together to the tomb? (Sheol )