Job 17

Job 17

Job Prays for Relief

1“My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;[#Ps 88.3, 4]

the grave is ready for me.

2Surely there are mockers around me,[#v 6 ; 1 Sam 1.6, 7]

and my eye dwells on their provocation.

3“Lay down a pledge for me with yourself;[#Ps 119.122; Prov 6.1]

who is there who will give surety for me?

4Since you have closed their minds to understanding,[#Job 12.20]

therefore you will not let them triumph.

5Those who denounce friends for reward—[#Lev 19.16; Job 11.20]

the eyes of their children will fail.

6“He has made me a byword of the peoples,[#Job 30.9, 10]

and I am one before whom people spit.

7My eye has grown dim from grief,[#Job 16.16]

and all my members are like a shadow.

8The upright are appalled at this,

and the innocent stir themselves up against the godless.

9Yet the righteous hold to their way,[#Job 22.30; Prov 4.18]

and they who have clean hands grow stronger and stronger.

10But you, come back now, all of you,

and I shall not find a sensible person among you.

11My days are past; my plans are broken off,[#Job 7.6]

the desires of my heart.

12They make night into day;

‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’

13If I look for Sheol as my house,[#Job 3.13]

if I spread my couch in darkness,

14if I say to the Pit, ‘You are my father,’[#Job 21.26; 24.20; Ps 16.10]

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

15where then is my hope?[#Job 7.6]

Who will see my hope?

16Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?[#Job 3.17–19; Jon 2.6]

Shall we descend together into the dust?”

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ