¹“My spirit is crushed; my life is extinguished; the grave is ready for me.

²Mockers surround me. I see how bitterly they ridicule me.

³God, you need to put down a pledge for me with yourself, for who else will be my guarantor?

⁴You have closed their minds to understanding, so do not let them win![#17:4. As often in the OT God is credited with actions he has not necessarily committed.]

⁵They betray friends to gain benefit for themselves and their children suffer for it.[#17:5. Literally, “the eyes of his children will fail.”]

⁶He has made me a proverb of ridicule among the people; they spit in my face.[#17:6. “Proverb of ridicule”—in other words Job has become a byword for someone who is mocked.]

⁷My eyes are worn out from crying and my body is a shadow of its former self.

⁸People who think they are good are shocked to see me. Those who are innocent are troubled by the godless.[#17:8. Some commentators believe Job is being sarcastic here and in the following verse, commenting on his friends' attitude towards him.]

⁹Those who are right keep going, and those whose hands are clean grow stronger and stronger.

¹⁰Why don't you come back and repeat again what you've been saying?—yet I still won't find a wise man among you!

¹¹My life is over. My plans are gone. My heart is broken.

¹²They turn night into day, and say that daylight is close to darkness.[#17:12. Referring to Job's friends, indicating that Job thinks they have everything the wrong way round.]

¹³What am I looking for? To make my home in Sheol, to make my bed in darkness?[#17:13. Sheol: the place of the dead.]

¹⁴Should I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister?[#17:14. Literally, “pit.”]

¹⁵So then where is my hope? Can anyone see any hope for me?

¹⁶Will hope go down with me to the gates of Sheol? Will we go down together into the dust?”