Job Says He Has Become a Byword
17 “My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished,
The (A)grave is ready for me.
2 “(B)Surely mockers are with me,
And my eye gazes on their provocation.
3 “Lay down, now, a pledge (C)for me with Yourself;
Who is there that will be my guarantor?
4 “For You have (D)kept their heart from understanding,
Therefore You will not exalt them.
5 “He who (E)informs against friends for a share of the spoil,
The (F)eyes of his children also will languish.
6 “But He has made me a (G)byword of the people,
And I am one at whom men (H)spit.
7 “My eye has also grown (I)dim because of grief,
And all my (J)members are as a shadow.
8 “The upright will be appalled at this,
And the (K)innocent will stir up himself against the godless.
9 “Nevertheless (L)the righteous will hold to his way,
And (M)he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
10 “But come again all of you now,
For I (N)do not find a wise man among you.
11 “My (O)days are past, my plans are torn apart,
Even the wishes of my heart.
12 “They make night into day, saying,
‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.
13 “If I look for (P)Sheol as my home,
I make my bed in the darkness;
14 If I call to the (Q)pit, ‘You are my father’;
To the (R)worm, ‘my mother and my sister’;
15 Where now is (S)my hope?
And who regards my hope?
16 “Will it go down with me to Sheol?
Shall we together (T)go down into the dust?”
Footnotes
- Job 17:1
- Job 17:2
- Job 17:3
- Job 17:4
- Job 17:6
- Job 17:10
- Job 17:13
- Job 17:16
Cross references
- Job 17:1 : Ps 88:3, 4
- Job 17:2 : Job 12:4; 17:6
- Job 17:3 : Ps 119:122; Is 38:14
- Job 17:4 : Job 12:20
- Job 17:5 : Lev 19:13, 16
- Job 17:5 : Job 11:20
- Job 17:6 : Job 17:2
- Job 17:6 : Job 30:10
- Job 17:7 : Job 16:16
- Job 17:7 : Job 16:8
- Job 17:8 : Job 22:19
- Job 17:9 : Prov 4:18
- Job 17:9 : Job 22:30; 31:7
- Job 17:10 : Job 12:2
- Job 17:11 : Job 7:6
- Job 17:13 : Job 3:13
- Job 17:14 : Job 7:5; 13:28; 30:30
- Job 17:14 : Job 21:26; 25:6
- Job 17:15 : Job 7:6
- Job 17:16 : Job 3:17; 21:33
