Job 17
1 My spirit will be wasted, my days will be shortened, and only the grave will be left for me.
My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.
2 I have not sinned, yet my eye remains in bitterness.
Surely there are mockers with me, and my eye dwells upon their provocation.
3 Free me, O Lord, and set me beside you, and let the hand of anyone you wish fight against me.
Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself. Who is there that will strike hands with me?
4 You have set their heart far from discipline; therefore, they will not be praised.
For thou have hid their heart from understanding. Therefore thou shall not exalt them.
5 He promises prey to his companions, but the eyes of his sons will grow faint.
He who denounces his friends for a prey, even the eyes of his sons shall fail.
6 He has posted me like a proverb to the people, and I am an example in their presence.
But he has made me a byword of the people, and they spit in my face.
7 My eyesight has been clouded by indignation, and my limbs have been reduced, as if to nothing.
My eye also is dim because of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
8 The just will be astounded over this, and the innocent will be stirred up against the hypocrite.
Upright men shall be astonished at this, and the innocent shall stir himself up against the profane.
9 And the just will cling to his way, and clean hands will increase strength.
Yet the righteous shall hold on his way. And he who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
10 Therefore, be converted, all of you, and approach, for I do not find in you any wisdom.
But as for you all, come on now again, and I shall not find a wise man among you.
11 My days have passed away; my thoughts have been scattered, tormenting my heart.
My days are past. My purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
12 They have turned night into day, and I hope for light again after the darkness.
They change the night into day. The light, they say, is near to the darkness.
13 If I should wait, the underworld is my house, and in darkness I have spread out my bed. (Sheol h7585)
If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness, (Sheol h7585)
14 I have said to decay and to worms: “You are my father, my mother, and my sister.”
if I have said to corruption, Thou are my father, to the worm, My mother, and my sister,
15 Therefore, where is my expectation now, and who is it that considers my patience?
where then is my hope? And as for my hope, who shall see it?
