Job 17 WBT
Summary: Job's spirit is broken and his days extinguished, and he feels surrounded by mockers whose insults keep his eyes fixed in bitter grief, wondering aloud where his hope now lies since even upright people are appalled at his condition. He speaks starkly of the grave as his only remaining prospect, addressing corruption as his father and the worm as his mother and sister, indicating that death, not vindication in this life, seems to be his only certain future. Job closes this section asking rhetorically whether any hope will go down with him to the dust, underscoring the despair that has settled over him after his friends' repeated accusations.
1My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves [are ready] for me.
2[Are there] not mockers with me? and doth not my eye continue in their provocation?
3Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who [is] he [that] will strike hands with me?
4For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt [them].
5He that speaketh flattery to [his] friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
6He hath made me also a by-word of the people; and in former time I was as a tabret.
7My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members [are] as a shade.
8Upright [men] shall be astonished at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
9The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
10But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find [one] wise [man] among you.
11My days are past, my purposes are broken off, [even] the thoughts of my heart.
12They change the night into day: the light [is] short because of darkness.
13If I wait, the grave [is] my house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
14I have said to corruption, Thou [art] my father: to the worm, [Thou art] my mother, and my sister.
15And where [is] now my hope? as for my hope, who will see it?
16They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when [our] rest together [is] in the dust.
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