Job 17
1 "My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.
My spirit is crushed; my life is extinguished; the grave is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.
Mockers surround me. I see how bitterly they ridicule me.
3 "Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands 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 shall not exalt them.
You have closed their minds to understanding, so do not let them win!
5 He who denounces his friends for a prey, Even the eyes of his children shall fail.
They betray friends to gain benefit for themselves and their children suffer for it.
6 "But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.
He has made me a proverb of ridicule among the people; they spit in my face.
7 My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.
My eyes are worn out from crying and my body is a shadow of its former self.
8 Upright men shall be astonished at this. The innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
People who think they are good are shocked to see me. Those who are innocent are troubled by the godless.
9 Yet shall the righteous hold on his way. He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
Those who are right keep going, and those whose hands are clean grow stronger and stronger.
10 But as for you all, come on now again; I shall 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 are past, my plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.
My life is over. My plans are gone. My heart is broken.
12 They change the night into day, saying 'The light is near' in the presence 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 If I have said to corruption, '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 where then is my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it?
So then where is my hope? Can anyone see any hope for me?
