Job 17

1My spirit is broken; my days are snuffed out; the grave is waiting for me.

2Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must dwell on their taunting.

3Lay down a pledge for me with yourself, please. Who else will strike hands with me as my guarantor?

4Because you have closed their minds to understanding, you will not let them triumph.

5If someone denounces his friends for a share of their property, the eyes of his children will fail.

6He has made me a byword among the peoples; I have become someone people spit on.

7My eyes have grown dim from grief, and all my limbs are like a shadow.

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

9Yet the righteous hold to their way, and those with clean hands grow stronger and stronger.

10But all of you, come back and try again! I will not find anyone wise among you.

11My days are past; my plans are torn apart, the desires of my heart.

12They turn night into day; they say, ‘Light is near,’ in the face of darkness.

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

14if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’

15where then is my hope? My hope—who can see it?

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