Job 17

1 “My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me.

1 My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.

2 Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.

2 Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?

3 Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand. Who else will be my guarantor?

3 Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?

4 You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.

4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.

5 If a man denounces his friends for a price, the eyes of his children will fail.

5 He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.

6 He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.

6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.

7 My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow.

7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.

8 The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent are stirred against the godless.

8 Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.

9 Yet a righteous one holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.

9 The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

10 But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you.

10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.

11 My days have passed; my plans are broken off—even the desires of my heart.

11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.

12 They have turned night into day, making light seem near in the face of darkness.

12 They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.

13 If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,

13 If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.

14 and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

14 I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

15 where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me?

15 And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?

16 Will it go down to the gates of Sheol? Will we go down together into the dust?”

16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.