Job 17

Job Says He Has Become a Byword

1 “My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished,
The ^{▼▼ Lit graves
,} ^bgrave is ready for me.
2 ^c“Surely mockers are with me,
And my eye ^{▼▼ Lit lodges}gazes on their provocation.

3 “Lay down, now, a pledge ^efor me with Yourself;
Who is there that will ^{▼▼ Lit strike hands with me}be my guarantor?
4 “For You have ^{▼▼ Lit hidden
,} ^hkept their heart from understanding,
Therefore You will not exalt them.
5 “He who ⁱinforms against friends for a share of the spoil,
The ^jeyes of his children also will languish.

6 “But He has made me a ^kbyword of the people,
And I am ^{▼▼ Lit a spitting to the faces}one at whom men ^mspit.
7 “My eye has also grown ⁿdim because of grief,
And all my ^omembers are as a shadow.
8 “The upright will be appalled at this,
And the ^pinnocent will stir up himself against the godless.
9 “Nevertheless ^qthe righteous will hold to his way,
And ^rhe who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
10 “But come again all of ^{▼▼ With some ancient mss and versions; M.T. them}you now,
For I ^tdo not find a wise man among you.
11 “My ^udays are past, my plans are torn apart,
Even the wishes of my heart.
12 “They make night into day, saying,
‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.
13 “If I look for ^vSheol as my home,
I ^{▼▼ Lit spread out}make my bed in the darkness;
14 If I call to the ^xpit, ‘You are my father’;
To the ^yworm, ‘my mother and my sister’;
15 Where now is ^zmy hope?
And who regards my hope?
16 ^{▼▼ So the Gr; Heb possibly Let my limbs sink down to Sheol, since there is rest in the dust for all}“Will it go down with me to Sheol?
Shall we together ^abgo down into the dust?”