Job 17:1"My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished, The grave is ready for me.
Job 17:2"Surely there are mockers and mockery with me, And my eye gazes on their obstinacy and provocation.
Job 17:3¶ "Give me a pledge (guarantee, promise) with Yourself [acknowledge my innocence before my death]; Who is there that will be my guarantor and give security for me?
Job 17:4"But You [Lord] have closed their hearts to understanding, Therefore You will not exalt them [by giving a verdict against me].
Job 17:5"He who denounces and informs against his friends for a share of the spoil, The eyes of his children will also languish and fail.
Job 17:6¶ "But He has made me a byword and mockery among the people, And I have become one in whose face people spit.
Job 17:7"My eye has grown dim (unexpressive) because of grief, And all my [body's] members are [wasted away] like a shadow.
Job 17:8"The upright will be [astonished and] appalled at this, And the innocent will stir himself up against the godless and polluted.
Job 17:9"Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his ways, And he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger. [Ps 24:4]
Job 17:10"But as for all of you, come back again, Even though I do not find a wise man among you.
Job 17:11"My days are past, my purposes and plans are frustrated and torn apart; The wishes of my heart [are broken].
Job 17:12"These [thoughts try to] make the night into the day; 'The light is near,' they say in the presence of darkness [but they pervert the truth].
Job 17:13"But if I look to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) as my home, If I make my bed in the darkness,
Job 17:14If I call out to the pit (grave), 'You are my father'; And to the worm [that feeds on decay], 'You are my mother and my sister [because I will soon be closest to you],'
Job 17:15Where now is my hope? And who regards or considers or is even concerned about my hope?
Job 17:16"Will my hope go down with me to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead)? Shall we go down together in the dust?"