Job 17
1 My spirit is crushed; my life is extinguished; the grave is ready for me.
“My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct and the grave is ready for me.
2 Mockers surround me. I see how bitterly they ridicule me.
Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.
3 God, you need to put down a pledge for me with yourself, for who else will be my guarantor?
“Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?
4 You have closed their minds to understanding, so do not let them win!
For you have hidden their heart from understanding, therefore you will not exalt them.
5 They betray friends to gain benefit for themselves and their children suffer for it.
He who denounces his friends for plunder, even the eyes of his children will fail.
6 He has made me a proverb of ridicule among the people; they spit in my face.
“But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.
7 My eyes are worn out from crying and my body is a shadow of its former self.
My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.
8 People who think they are good are shocked to see me. Those who are innocent are troubled by the godless.
Upright men will be astonished at this. The innocent will stir himself up against the godless.
9 Those who are right keep going, and those whose hands are clean grow stronger and stronger.
Yet the righteous will hold to his way. He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
10 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!
But as for you all, come back. I will not find a wise man amongst you.
11 My life is over. My plans are gone. My heart is broken.
My days are past. My plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.
12 They turn night into day, and say that daylight is close to darkness.
They change the night into day, saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness.
If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness, (Sheol h7585)
14 Should I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister?
if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’
15 So then where is my hope? Can anyone see any hope for me?
where then is my hope? As for my hope, who will see it?
