Job 17

Job Says He Has Become a Proverb

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

3 “Make 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 hearts away from understanding;
Therefore You will not exalt them.
5 “He who ⁱinforms against friends for a share of the spoils,
The ^jeyes of his children also will perish.

6 “But He has made me a ^kproverb among the people,
And I am ^{▼▼Lit a spitting to the faces}one at whom people ^mspit.
7 “My eye has also become ⁿinexpressive because of grief,
And all my ^obody parts are like a shadow.
8 “The upright will be appalled at this,
And the ^pinnocent will stir himself up against the godless.
9 “Nevertheless ^qthe righteous will hold to his way,
And ^rthe one who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
10 “But come again all of ^{▼▼As in some mss and ancient versions; MT them}you now,
For I ^tdo not find a wise man among you.
11 “My ^udays are past, my plans are torn apart,
The wishes of my heart.
12 “They make night into day, saying,
‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.
13 “If I hope for ^{▼▼I.e., the netherworld
,} ^wSheol as my home,
I ^{▼▼Lit spread out}make my bed in the darkness;
14 If I call to the ^ygrave, ‘You are my father’;
To the ^zmaggot, ‘my mother and my sister’;
15 Where then is ^aamy hope?
And who looks at my hope?
16 “ ^{▼▼As in LXX; 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 ^acgo down into the dust?”