Job 17

Job Prays for Relief

17“My spirit is broken, My days are extinguished,

^aThe grave is ready for me.

²Are not mockers with me?

And does not my eye ¹dwell on their ^bprovocation?

³“Now put down a pledge for me with Yourself.

Who is he who ^cwill shake hands with me?

⁴For You have hidden their heart from ^dunderstanding;

Therefore You will not exalt them.

⁵He who speaks flattery to his friends,

Even the eyes of his children will ^efail.

⁶“But He has made me ^fa byword of the people,

And I have become one in whose face men spit.

^7gMy eye has also grown dim because of sorrow,

And all my members are like shadows.

⁸Upright men are astonished at this,

And the innocent stirs himself up against the hypocrite.

⁹Yet the righteous will hold to his ^hway,

And he who has ⁱclean hands will be stronger and stronger.

¹⁰“But please, ^jcome back again, ²all of you,

For I shall not find one wise man among you.

^11kMy days are past,

My purposes are broken off,

Even the ³thoughts of my heart.

¹²They change the night into day;

‘The light is near,’ they say, in the face of darkness.

¹³If I wait for the grave as my house,

If I make my bed in the darkness,

¹⁴If I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’

And to the worm, ‘You are my mother and my sister,’

¹⁵Where then is my ^lhope?

As for my hope, who can see it?

¹⁶Will they go down ^mto the gates of ⁴Sheol?

Shall we have ⁿrest together in the dust?”