Job 17

q[See ver. 13 above]

Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?

1 “My spirit is broken; my days are ^aextinct;
^bthe graveyard is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their ^cprovocation.
3 “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
who is there who will put up ^dsecurity 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 ^eeyes of his children will fail.
6 “He has made me ^fa byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom men spit.
7 My ^geye has grown dim from vexation,
and all my members are like ^ha shadow.
8 The upright are ⁱappalled at this,
and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
9 Yet the righteous holds to his way,
and he who has ^jclean hands grows stronger and stronger.
10 But you, ^kcome on again, all of you,
and I shall not find a wise man among you.
11 My ^ldays are past; my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.
12 They ^mmake night into day:
‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’ ^{▼▼The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain}
13 If I hope for ^oSheol as ^pmy 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 ^qSheol?
Shall we ^rdescend together ^sinto the dust?”