Job 17
Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?
1 “My spirit is broken; my days are a extinct;b the graveyard is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their c provocation.
3 “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
who is there who will put up d security for me?
4 Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.
5 He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
the e eyes of his children will fail.
6 “He has made me f a byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom men spit.
7 My g eye has grown dim from vexation,
and all my members are like h a shadow.
8 The upright are i appalled at this,
and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
9 Yet the righteous holds to his way,
and he who has j clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
10 But you, k come on again, all of you,
and I shall not find a wise man among you.
11 My l days are past; my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.
12 They m make night into day:
‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’ ▼
▼
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
13 If I hope for o Sheol as p my house,
if I make my bed in darkness,
14 if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
15 where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?
16 Will it go down to the bars of q Sheol?
Shall we r descend together s into the dust?”
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