Job 17

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 who*Prov. 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 wehave*Job 3:17–19; 21:33rest together in the dust?"