< Job 17 >

1 My spirit is broken, my days are cut short, the grave is ready for me.
My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.
2 Yet truly those that mock are with me, and on their offendings must my eye rest.
Surely there are mockers with me, and my eye dwells upon their provocation.
3 And thou, [Creator!] attend, I pray thee, be my surety with thyself: who else is there that would strike hands with me?
Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself. Who is there that will strike hands with me?
4 For thou hast concealed their heart against intelligence: therefore art thou not exalted [through them].
For thou have hid their heart from understanding. Therefore thou shall not exalt them.
5 Every one of them speaketh deceptively to his friends: may also the eyes of his children fail.
He who denounces his friends for a prey, even the eyes of his sons shall fail.
6 And he hath placed me here as a by-word unto nations; and I become openly as a place of abomination.
But he has made me a byword of the people, and they spit in my face.
7 Therefore is my eye dim from vexation, and my limbs are all of them like a shadow.
My eye also is dim because of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
8 Upright men must be astonished at this, and the innocent must arouse himself against the hypocrite.
Upright men shall be astonished at this, and the innocent shall stir himself up against the profane.
9 Yet will the righteous hold firmly on to his way; and he that is clean of hands will acquire additional strength.
Yet the righteous shall hold on his way. And he who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
10 But all of you, do only return, and come but [to me]: and yet I shall not find among you one wise man.
But as for you all, come on now again, and I shall not find a wise man among you.
11 My days are past, my resolves are broken off, [even the thoughts]—the possessions of my heart.
My days are past. My purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
12 These would change the night into day, the light as near in the presence of darkness.—
They change the night into day. The light, they say, is near to the darkness.
13 When I hope for the nether world as my house; in the darkness have I spread my couch; (Sheol h7585)
If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness, (Sheol h7585)
14 When I call to corruption, Thou art my father: Thou art my mother, and my sister, to the worms.
if I have said to corruption, Thou are my father, to the worm, My mother, and my sister,
15 Ay, where is then my hope? as for my hope, who will see it [fulfilled]?
where then is my hope? And as for my hope, who shall see it?
16 Let then my limbs sink down to the nether world: truly in the dust alone there is rest for all. (Sheol h7585)
It shall go down to the bars of Sheol when once there is rest in the dust. (Sheol h7585)

< Job 17 >