Job 17
1 My spirit, is broken, My days, are extinguished, Graves, are left me.
My spirit is crushed; my life is extinguished; the grave is ready for me.
2 Verily there are mockers, with me! And, on their insults, mine eye doth rest.
Mockers surround me. I see how bitterly they ridicule me.
3 Appoint it, I pray thee—be thou surety for me with thyself, Who is there that, on my side, can pledge himself?
God, you need to put down a pledge for me with yourself, for who else will be my guarantor?
4 For, their heart, hast thou kept back from understanding, On this account, thou wilt not exalt them.
You have closed their minds to understanding, so do not let them win!
5 He that, for a share, denounceth friends, even, the eyes of his children, shall be dim.
They betray friends to gain benefit for themselves and their children suffer for it.
6 But he hath set me, as the byword of peoples, And, one to be spit on in the face, do I become.
He has made me a proverb of ridicule among the people; they spit in my face.
7 Therefore hath mine eye become dim from vexation, and, my members, are like a shadow, all of them.
My eyes are worn out from crying and my body is a shadow of its former self.
8 Upright men shall be astounded over this, and, the innocent, against the impious, shall rouse themselves.
People who think they are good are shocked to see me. Those who are innocent are troubled by the godless.
9 That the righteous may hold on his way, and, the clean of hands, increase in strength.
Those who are right keep going, and those whose hands are clean grow stronger and stronger.
10 But indeed, as for them all, will ye bethink yourselves and enter into it, I pray you? Or shall I not find, among you, one who is wise?
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 purposes, are broken off, the possessions of my heart!
My life is over. My plans are gone. My heart is broken.
12 Night for day, they appoint, Light, is near, by reason 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, have exclaimed, My father, thou! My mother! and My sister! to the worm.
Should I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister?
15 Where then would be my hope? And, as for my blessedness, who should see it!
So then where is my hope? Can anyone see any hope for me?
