Job 17

Job Prepares for Death

1“My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished;

the grave awaits me.

2Surely mockers surround me,

and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.

3Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand.

Who else will be my guarantor?

4You have closed their minds to understanding;

therefore You will not exalt them.

5If a man denounces his friends for a price,

the eyes of his children will fail.

6He has made me a byword among the people,

a man in whose face they spit.

7My eyes have grown dim with grief,

and my whole body is but a shadow.

8The upright are appalled at this,

and the innocent are stirred against the godless.

9Yet a righteous one holds to his way,

and the one with clean hands grows stronger.

10But come back and try again, all of you.

For I will not find a wise man among you.

11My days have passed; my plans are broken off—

even the desires of my heart.

12They have turned night into day,

making light seem near in the face of darkness.

13If I look for Sheol as my home,

if I spread out my bed in darkness,

14and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’

and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

15where then is my hope?

Who can see any hope for me?

16Will it go down to the gates of Sheol?

Will we go down together into the dust?”