Job 17
1 “My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct and the grave is ready for me.
I perish, carried away by the wind, and I seek for burial, and obtain [it] not.
2 Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.
Weary I intreat; and what have I done? and strangers have stolen my goods.
3 “Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?
Who is this? let him join hands with me.
4 For you have hidden their heart from understanding, therefore you will not exalt them.
For thou hast hid their heart from wisdom; therefore thou shalt not exalt them.
5 He who denounces his friends for plunder, even the eyes of his children will fail.
He shall promise mischief to [his] companions: but [their] eyes have failed for [their] children.
6 “But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.
But thou has made me a byword amount the nations, and I am become a scorn to them.
7 My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.
For my eyes are dimmed through pain; I have been grievously beset by all.
8 Upright men will be astonished at this. The innocent will stir himself up against the godless.
Wonder has seized true men upon this; and let the just rise up against the transgressor.
9 Yet the righteous will hold to his way. He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
But let the faithful hold on his own way, and let him that is pure of hands take courage.
10 But as for you all, come back. I will not find a wise man amongst you.
Howbeit, do ye all strengthen [yourselves] and come now, for I do not find truth in you.
11 My days are past. My plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.
My days have passed in groaning, and my heart-strings are broken.
12 They change the night into day, saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness.
I have turned the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
For if I remain, Hades is my habitation: and my bed has been made in darkness. (Sheol h7585)
14 if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’
I have called upon death to be my father, and corruption [to be] my mother and sister.
15 where then is my hope? As for my hope, who will see it?
Where then is yet my hope? or [where] shall I see my good?
