Job



Chapter 17

   1 My spirit is broken, my days have faded out, the grave awaits me.
   2 Surely mockery is with me; my eyes must dwell on their hostility.
   3 Make then my pledge with you. Who else will put up security for me?
   4 Because you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not exalt them.
   5 If a man denounces his friends for personal gain, the eyes of his children will fail.
   6 He has made me a byword to people, I am the one in whose face they spit.
   7 My eyes have grown dim with grief; my whole frame is but a shadow.
   8 Upright men are appalled at this; the innocent man is troubled with the godless.
   9 But the righteous man holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.

Anticipation of Death

   10 "But turn, all of you, and come now! I will not find a wise man among you.
   11 My days have passed, my plans are shattered, even the desires of my heart.
   12 These men change night into day; they say, 'The light is near in the face of darkness.'
   13 If I hope for the grave to be my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,
   14 If I cry to corruption, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My Mother, ' or 'My sister, '
   15 where then is my hope? And my hope, who sees it?
   16 Will it go down to the barred gates of death? Will we descend together into the dust?"