Job 17
1 “My spirit has been destroyed, My days extinguished—graves [are] for me.
My breath is exhausted; My days are at an end; The grave is ready for me.
2 If not—mockeries [are] with me. And my eye lodges in their provocations.
Are not revilers before me? And doth not my eye dwell upon their provocations?
3 Now place my pledge with You; Who is he that strikes hand with me?
Give a pledge, I pray thee; be thou a surety for me with thee; Who is he that will strike hands with me?
4 For You have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore You do not exalt them.
Behold, thou hast blinded their understanding; Therefore thou wilt not suffer them to prevail.
5 For a portion he shows friendship, And the eyes of his sons are consumed.
He who delivereth up his friends as a prey, —The eyes of his children shall fail.
6 And He set me up for a proverb of the peoples, And I am a wonder before them.
He made me the by-word of the people; Yea, I have become their abhorrence.
7 And my eye is dim from sorrow, And my members—all of them—as a shadow.
My eye therefore is dim with sorrow, And all my limbs are as a shadow.
8 The upright are astonished at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the profane.
Upright men will be astonished at this, And the innocent will rouse themselves against the wicked.
9 And the righteous lays hold [on] his way, And the clean of hands adds strength.
The righteous will also hold on his way, And he that hath clean hands will gather strength.
10 But please return and come in, all of you, And I do not find a wise man among you.
But as for you all, return, I pray! I find not yet 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 at an end; My plans are broken off; Even the treasures of my heart.
12 They appoint night for day, Light [is] near because of darkness.
Night hath become day to me; The light bordereth on darkness.
Yea, I look to the grave as my home; I have made my bed in darkness. (Sheol h7585)
14 To corruption I have called: You [are] my father. To the worm: My mother and my sister.
I say to the pit, Thou art my father! And to the worm, My mother! and, My sister!
15 And where [is] my hope now? Indeed, my hope, who beholds it?
Where then is my hope? Yea, my hope, who shall see it?
