< Job 17 >
1 [Spiritus meus attenuabitur; dies mei breviabuntur: et solum mihi superest sepulchrum.
“My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct and the grave is ready for me.
2 Non peccavi, et in amaritudinibus moratur oculus meus.
Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.
3 Libera me, Domine, et pone me juxta te, et cujusvis manus pugnet contra me.
“Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?
4 Cor eorum longe fecisti a disciplina: propterea non exaltabuntur.
For you have hidden their heart from understanding, therefore you will not exalt them.
5 Prædam pollicetur sociis, et oculi filiorum ejus deficient.
He who denounces his friends for plunder, even the eyes of his children will fail.
6 Posuit me quasi in proverbium vulgi, et exemplum sum coram eis.
“But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.
7 Caligavit ab indignatione oculus meus, et membra mea quasi in nihilum redacta sunt.
My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.
8 Stupebunt justi super hoc, et innocens contra hypocritam suscitabitur.
Upright men will be astonished at this. The innocent will stir himself up against the godless.
9 Et tenebit justus viam suam, et mundis manibus addet fortitudinem.
Yet the righteous will hold to his way. He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
10 Igitur omnes vos convertimini, et venite, et non inveniam in vobis ullum sapientem.
But as for you all, come back. I will not find a wise man amongst you.
11 Dies mei transierunt; cogitationes meæ dissipatæ sunt, torquentes cor meum.
My days are past. My plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.
12 Noctem verterunt in diem, et rursum post tenebras spero lucem.
They change the night into day, saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness.
13 Si sustinuero, infernus domus mea est, et in tenebris stravi lectulum meum. (Sheol )
If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness, (Sheol )
14 Putredini dixi: Pater meus es; Mater mea, et soror mea, vermibus.
if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’
15 Ubi est ergo nunc præstolatio mea? et patientiam meam quis considerat?
where then is my hope? As for my hope, who will see it?
16 In profundissimum infernum descendent omnia mea: putasne saltem ibi erit requies mihi?] (Sheol )
Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?” (Sheol )