Job 17
1 “My spirit has been destroyed, My days extinguished—graves [are] for me.
My spirit is crushed; my life is extinguished; the grave is ready for me.
2 If not—mockeries [are] with me. And my eye lodges in their provocations.
Mockers surround me. I see how bitterly they ridicule me.
3 Now place my pledge with You; Who is he that strikes hand with me?
God, you need to put down a pledge for me with yourself, for who else will be my guarantor?
4 For You have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore You do not exalt them.
You have closed their minds to understanding, so do not let them win!
5 For a portion he shows friendship, And the eyes of his sons are consumed.
They betray friends to gain benefit for themselves and their children suffer for it.
6 And He set me up for a proverb of the peoples, And I am a wonder before them.
He has made me a proverb of ridicule among the people; they spit in my face.
7 And my eye is dim from sorrow, And my members—all of them—as a shadow.
My eyes are worn out from crying and my body is a shadow of its former self.
8 The upright are astonished at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the profane.
People who think they are good are shocked to see me. Those who are innocent are troubled by the godless.
9 And the righteous lays hold [on] his way, And the clean of hands adds strength.
Those who are right keep going, and those whose hands are clean grow stronger and stronger.
10 But please return and come in, all of you, And I do not find a wise man among you.
Why don't you come back and repeat again what you've been saying?—yet I still won't find a wise man among you!
11 My days have passed by, My plans have been broken off, The possessions of my heart!
My life is over. My plans are gone. My heart is broken.
12 They appoint night for day, Light [is] near because of darkness.
They turn night into day, and say that daylight is close to darkness.
What am I looking for? To make my home in Sheol, to make my bed in darkness? (Sheol h7585)
14 To corruption I have called: You [are] my father. To the worm: My mother and my sister.
Should I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister?
15 And where [is] my hope now? Indeed, my hope, who beholds it?
So then where is my hope? Can anyone see any hope for me?
