Job, 17

¹ “My spirit has been broken, my days have been extinguished; The graveyard awaits me.

² Mockers surround me, And my eye must gaze at^*1 their rebellious behavior.

³ Please accept my security, and keep it with you. Who else will shake hands with me and pledge in my behalf?

⁴ For you have concealed discernment from their heart; That is why you do not exalt them.

⁵ He may offer to share with his friends, While the eyes of his children fail.

⁶ He has made me an object of scorn^*1 among the peoples, So that I became one in whose face they spit.

⁷ From anguish my eyes grow dim, And all my limbs are but a shadow.

⁸ Upright people stare in amazement at this, And the innocent one is disturbed over the godless.^*1

⁹ The righteous one keeps holding fast to his way, And the one with clean hands grows stronger.

¹⁰ However, you may all come and resume your arguing, For I have not found anyone wise among you.

¹¹ My days are finished; My plans, the desires of my heart, have been shattered.

¹² They keep turning night into day, Saying, ‘Light must be near because it is dark.’

¹³ If I wait, the Grave^*1 will become my home; I will spread out my bed in darkness.

¹⁴ I will call out to the pit,^*1 ‘You are my father!’ To the maggot, ‘My mother and my sister!’

¹⁵ Where, then, is my hope? Who can see hope for me?

¹⁶ It^*1 will go down to the barred gates of the Grave^*2 When we all descend together into the dust.”