Job 17

¹  “My spirit is consumed.
    My days are extinct,
    and the grave is ready for me.
² Surely there are mockers with me.
    My eye dwells on their provocation.

³ “Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with yourself.
    Who is there who will strike hands with me?
⁴ For you have hidden their heart from understanding,
    Therefore you will not exalt them.
⁵ He who denounces his friends for plunder,
    Even the eyes of his children will fail.

⁶ “But he has made me a byword of the people.
    They spit in my face.
⁷ My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow.
    All my members are as a shadow.
⁸ Upright men will be astonished at this.
    The innocent will stir himself up against the godless.
⁹ Yet the righteous will hold to his way.
    He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
¹⁰ But as for you all, come back.
    I will not find a wise man among you.
¹¹ My days are past.
    My plans are broken off,
    as are the thoughts of my heart.
¹² They change the night into day,
    saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness.
¹³ If I look for Sheol ^[a] as my house,
    if I have spread my couch in the darkness,
¹⁴ if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father;’
    to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’
¹⁵ where then is my hope?
    As for my hope, who will see it?
¹⁶ Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, ^[b]
    or descend together into the dust?”