Job 17

Berean Standard Bible

JPS Tanakh (Jewish Publication Society, 1917)

1“My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me.

1My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.

2Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.

2Surely there are mockers with me, and mine eye abideth in their provocation.

3Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand. Who else will be my guarantor?

3Give now a pledge, be surety for me with Thyself; who else is there that will strike hands with me?

4You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.

4For Thou hast hid their heart from understanding; therefore shalt Thou not exalt them.

5If a man denounces his friends for a price, the eyes of his children will fail.

5He that denounceth his friends for the sake of flattery, even the eyes of his children shall fail.

6He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.

6He hath made me also a byword of the people; and I am become one in whose face they spit.

7My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow.

7Mine eye also is dimmed by reason of vexation, and all my members are as a shadow.

8The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent are stirred against the godless.

8Upright men are astonished at this, and the innocent stirreth up himself against the godless.

9Yet a righteous one holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.

9Yet the righteous holdeth on his way, and he that hath clean hands waxeth stronger and stronger.

10But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you.

10But as for you all, do ye return, and come now; and I shall not find a wise man among you.

11My days have passed; my plans are broken off— even the desires of my heart.

11My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.

12They have turned night into day, making light seem near in the face of darkness.

12They change the night into day; the light is short because of darkness.

13If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,

13If I look for the nether-world as my house; if I have spread my couch in the darkness;

14and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

14If I have said to corruption: 'Thou art my father', to the worm: 'Thou art my mother, and my sister';

15where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me?

15Where then is my hope? And as for my hope, who shall see it?

16Will it go down to the gates of Sheol? Will we go down together into the dust?”

16They shall go down to the bars of the nether-world, when we are at rest together in the dust.

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