Job 17
1 My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves [are ready] for me.
“My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me.
2 [Are there] not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.
3 Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who [is] he [that] will strike hands with me?
Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand. Who else will be my guarantor?
4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt [them].
You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.
5 He that speaketh flattery to [his] friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
If a man denounces his friends for a price, the eyes of his children will fail.
6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.
7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members [are] as a shadow.
My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow.
8 Upright [men] shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent are stirred against the godless.
9 The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
Yet a righteous one holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.
10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find [one] wise [man] among you.
But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you.
11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, [even] the thoughts of my heart.
My days have passed; my plans are broken off— even the desires of my heart.
12 They change the night into day: the light [is] short because of darkness.
They have turned night into day, making light seem near in the face of darkness.
If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness, (Sheol h7585)
14 I have said to corruption, Thou [art] my father: to the worm, [Thou art] my mother, and my sister.
and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
15 And where [is] now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me?
