Job Prays for Relief
1 "My spirit is broken,
My days are extinguished,
Ps. 88:3, 4The grave isready for me.
2 Are not mockers with me?
And does not my eye dwell on their 1 Sam. 1:6; Job 12:4; 17:6; 30:1, 9; 34:7provocation?
3 "Now put down a pledge for me with Yourself.
Who is he whoProv. 6:1; 17:18; 22:26will shake hands with me?
4 For You have hidden their heart from Job 12:20; 32:9understanding;
Therefore You will not exalt them.
5 He who speaks flattery to his friends,
Even the eyes of his children will Job 11:20fail.
6 "But He has made me Job 30:9a byword of the people,
And I have become one in whose face men spit.
7 Ps. 6:7; 31:9My eye has also grown dim because of sorrow,
And all my members are like shadows.
8 Upright men are astonished at this,
And the innocent stirs himself up against the hypocrite.
9 Yet the righteous will hold to his Prov. 4:18way,
And he who has Ps. 24:4clean hands will be stronger and stronger.
10 "But please, Job 6:29come back again, all of you,
For I shall not find one wise man among you.
11 Job 7:6My days are past,
My purposes are broken off,
Even the thoughts of my heart.
12 They change the night into day;
‘The light is near,’ theysay, in the face of darkness.
13 If I wait for the grave as my house,
If I make my bed in the darkness,
14 If I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’
And to the worm, ‘You are my mother and my sister,’
15 Where then is my Job 7:6; 13:15; 14:19; 19:10hope?
As for my hope, who can see it?
16 Will they go down Jon. 2:6to the gates of Sheol?
Shall wehaveJob 3:17–19; 21:33rest together in the dust?"