17 My spirit is broken.
My days are extinguished.
A graveyard(A) awaits me.
2 Surely mockers surround[a] me
and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.(B)
3 Make arrangements! Put up security for me.[b](C)
Who else will be my sponsor?[c]
4 You have closed their minds to understanding,
therefore You will not honor them.
5 If a man informs on his friends for a price,
the eyes of his children will fail.
6 He has made me an object of scorn to the people;
I have become a man people spit at.[d](D)
7 My eyes have grown dim from grief,
and my whole body has become but a shadow.
8 The upright are appalled(E) at this,
and the innocent are roused against the godless.
9 Yet the righteous person will hold to his way,
and the one whose hands are clean(F) will grow stronger.
10 But come back and try again, all of you.[e]
I will not find a wise man among you.
11 My days have slipped by;
my plans have been ruined,
even the things dear to my heart.
12 They turned night into day
and made light seem near in the face of darkness.(G)
13 If I await Sheol as my home,
spread out my bed in darkness,
14 and say to corruption: You are my father,
and to the maggot: My mother or my sister,(H)
15 where then is my hope?(I)
Who can see any hope for me?
16 Will it go down to the gates of Sheol,(J)
or will we descend together to the dust?
Footnotes
- Job 17:2 Lit are with
- Job 17:3 Lit me with You
- Job 17:3 Lit Who is there that will strike himself into my hand
- Job 17:6 Lit become a spitting to the faces
- Job 17:10 Some Hb mss, LXX, Vg; other Hb mss read them
Cross references
- 17:1 : Jb 3:22; 5:26; 10:19
- 17:2 : Ps 22:7; 119:51; Jr 20:7
- 17:3 : Gn 43:9; Ps 119:122; Pr 6:1
- 17:6 : Nm 12:14; Is 50:6; Mt 27:30
- 17:8 : Jb 18:20; 21:5; Dn 4:19
- 17:9 : 2Sm 22:21; Jb 22:30; Ps 24:4
- 17:12 : Jb 11:17; Ps 37:6; Is 58:8, 10
- 17:14 : Jb 3:15; 30:23; Ec 12:5
- 17:15 : Jb 7:6; 14:19; 19:10
- 17:16 : Jb 7:9; 11:8; 14:13