Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?

17 “My spirit is broken; my days are jextinct;

kthe graveyard is ready for me.

2  Surely there are mockers about me,

and my eye dwells on their lprovocation.

3  “Lay down a pledge for me with you;

who is there who will put up msecurity 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 neyes of his children will fail.

6  “He has made me oa byword of the peoples,

and I am one before whom men spit.

7  My peye has grown dim from vexation,

and all my members are like qa shadow.

8  The upright are rappalled at this,

and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.

9  Yet the righteous holds to his way,

and he who has sclean hands grows stronger and stronger.

10  But you, tcome on again, all of you,

and I shall not find a wise man among you.

11  My udays are past; my plans are broken off,

the desires of my heart.

12  They vmake night into day:

‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’1

13  If I hope for wSheol as xmy 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 wSheol?

Shall we ydescend together zinto the dust?”2