NETtext - Job - 17

17:1  My spirit is broken, my days have faded out, the grave awaits me.

17:2  Surely mockery is with me; my eyes must dwell on their hostility.

17:3  Make then my pledge with you. Who else will put up security for me?

17:4  Because you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not exalt them.

17:5  If a man denounces his friends for personal gain, the eyes of his children will fail.

17:6  He has made me a byword to people, I am the one in whose face they spit.

17:7  My eyes have grown dim with grief; my whole frame is but a shadow.

17:8  Upright men are appalled at this; the innocent man is troubled with the godless.

17:9  But the righteous man holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.

17:10  "But turn, all of you, and come now! I will not find a wise man among you.

17:11  My days have passed, my plans are shattered, even the desires of my heart.

17:12  These men change night into day; they say, 'The light is near in the face of darkness.'

17:13  If I hope for the grave to be my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,

17:14  If I cry to corruption, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My Mother,' or 'My sister,'

17:15  where then is my hope? And my hope, who sees it?

17:16  Will it go down to the barred gates of death? Will we descend together into the dust?"