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Job’s Fifth Speech, Continued

17 “My spirit is pulled down; my days are extinguished;
the graveyard is for me.
Surely[a] mockery is with me,
and my eye rests[b] on their provocation.
Please lay down a pledge for me with yourself;
who is he who will give security for my hand?[c]
Indeed,[d] you have closed their mind from understanding;
therefore, you will not let them triumph.
He denounces friends for reward,
so[e] his children’s eyes will fail.
“And he has made me a proverb for[f] the peoples,
and I am one before whom people spit.[g]
And my eye has grown dim from grief,
and the limbs of my body are all[h] like a shadow.
The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent excites himself over the godless.
But[i] the righteous holds on to his way,
and he who has clean hands[j] increases in strength.
10 But[k] all of you must return[l]please come![m]
But[n] I shall not find a wise person among you.
11 “My days are past; my plans are broken down—
even the desires of my heart.
12 They make night into day,
saying, ‘Light is near to darkness.’[o]
13 If I hope for Sheol as my house,
if I spread my couch in the darkness,
14 if I call to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
to the maggot, ‘You are my mother or[p] my sister,’
15 where[q] then is my hope?
And who will see my hope?[r]
16 Will they go down to the bars of Sheol?
Or shall we descend together into the dust?”

Footnotes

  1. Job 17:2 Literally “If not”
  2. Job 17:2 Literally “spends the night”
  3. Job 17:3 Or “who will give security for me?”
  4. Job 17:4 Or “For”
  5. Job 17:5 Hebrew “and”
  6. Job 17:6 Hebrew “of”
  7. Job 17:6 Literally “and spitting to the faces I am”
  8. Job 17:7 Hebrew “all of them”
  9. Job 17:9 Hebrew “And”
  10. Job 17:9 Literally “the clean of hands”
  11. Job 17:10 Literally “And but”
  12. Job 17:10 Literally “all of them you must return”
  13. Job 17:10 Literally “and please come,” or “come on!”
  14. Job 17:10 Hebrew “And”
  15. Job 17:12 Literally “near from the faces of darkness”
  16. Job 17:14 Or “and”
  17. Job 17:15 Hebrew “and where”
  18. Job 17:15 Literally “my hope who will see it”