Job 17

¹ My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished;
the grave is ready for me.

² Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their provocation.

³ Lay down a pledge for me with yourself;
who is there that will give surety for me?

⁴ Since you have closed their minds to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.

⁵ He denounces friends for a share of the spoil,
while the eyes of his children languish.

⁶ He has made me a byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom men spit.

⁷ My eye has grown dim from grief,
and all my members are like a shadow.

⁸ Upright men are appalled at this;
the innocent stirs himself up against the ungodly.

⁹ Yet the righteous holds to his way,
and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.

¹⁰ But come again, all of you —
for I do not find a wise man among you.

¹¹ My days are past; my plans are shattered,
the desires of my heart.

¹² They make night into day;
'the light,' they say, 'is near to the darkness.'

¹³ If I hope for Sheol as my house,
if I spread my couch 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 It will go down to the bars of Sheol;
we shall rest together in the dust.