Job 17

Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?

1 "My spirit is broken; my days are *[ch. 18:5,6] extinct;

*[Ps. 88:3,4]the graveyard is ready for me.

2 Surely there are mockers about me,

and my eye dwells on their *1 Sam. 1:6,7;[ch. 12:6]provocation.

3 "Lay down a pledge for me with you;

who is there who will put up *Ps. 119:122;Isa. 38:14;Heb. 7:22security 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 *[ch. 11:20;31:16]eyes of his children will fail.

6 "He has made me *ch. 30:9;Deut. 28:37;[Ps. 44:14;69:11]a byword of the peoples,

and I am one before whom men spit.

7 My *[Ps. 6:7;31:9] eye has grown dim from vexation,

and all my members are like *See ch. 14:2a shadow.

8 The upright are *Isa. 52:14appalled at this,

and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.

9 Yet the righteous holds to his way,

and he who has *See ch. 22:30clean hands grows stronger and stronger.

10 But you, *ch. 6:29come on again, all of you,

and I shall not find a wise man among you.

11 My *ch. 7:6;9:25days are past; my plans are broken off,

the desires of my heart.

12 They *[ch. 11:17]make night into day:

‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’*17:12 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain

13 If I hope for *See ch. 21:13Sheol as *[Eccles. 12:5]my 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 *[See ver. 13above] Sheol?

Shall we *[ch. 3:17-19] descend together *ch. 21:26;40:13into the dust?"*17:16 Or Will they go down to the bars of Sheol? Is rest to be found together in the dust?