Job 17
1 “My spirit has been destroyed, My days extinguished—graves [are] for me.
My spirit is broken, my days are cut short, the grave is ready for me.
2 If not—mockeries [are] with me. And my eye lodges in their provocations.
Yet truly those that mock are with me, and on their offendings must my eye rest.
3 Now place my pledge with You; Who is he that strikes hand with me?
And thou, [Creator!] attend, I pray thee, be my surety with thyself: who else is there that would strike hands with me?
4 For You have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore You do not exalt them.
For thou hast concealed their heart against intelligence: therefore art thou not exalted [through them].
5 For a portion he shows friendship, And the eyes of his sons are consumed.
Every one of them speaketh deceptively to his friends: may also the eyes of his children fail.
6 And He set me up for a proverb of the peoples, And I am a wonder before them.
And he hath placed me here as a by-word unto nations; and I become openly as a place of abomination.
7 And my eye is dim from sorrow, And my members—all of them—as a shadow.
Therefore is my eye dim from vexation, and my limbs are all of them like a shadow.
8 The upright are astonished at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the profane.
Upright men must be astonished at this, and the innocent must arouse himself against the hypocrite.
9 And the righteous lays hold [on] his way, And the clean of hands adds strength.
Yet will the righteous hold firmly on to his way; and he that is clean of hands will acquire additional strength.
10 But please return and come in, all of you, And I do not find a wise man among you.
But all of you, do only return, and come but [to me]: and yet I shall not find among you one wise man.
11 My days have passed by, My plans have been broken off, The possessions of my heart!
My days are past, my resolves are broken off, [even the thoughts]—the possessions of my heart.
12 They appoint night for day, Light [is] near because of darkness.
These would change the night into day, the light as near in the presence of darkness.—
When I hope for the nether world as my house; in the darkness have I spread my couch; (Sheol h7585)
14 To corruption I have called: You [are] my father. To the worm: My mother and my sister.
When I call to corruption, Thou art my father: Thou art my mother, and my sister, to the worms.
15 And where [is] my hope now? Indeed, my hope, who beholds it?
Ay, where is then my hope? as for my hope, who will see it [fulfilled]?
