Job 17  Tree of Life Version

³ “Make then a pledge for me with You.
    Who else would strike hands with me?
⁴ Because You have closed their heart to understanding,
    therefore You will not exalt them.
⁵ If anyone denounces his friends for profit
    the eyes of his children will fail.
⁶ He has made me a byword to people,
    I am the one in whose face people spit.
⁷ My eyes have grown dim with grief
    and all my limbs are like a shadow.
⁸ The upright are appalled at this;
    the innocent are stirred up against the ungodly.
⁹ But the righteous one holds to his way,
    and the one with clean hands grows stronger.

¹⁰ “But turn, all of you, come now!
    I will not find a wise man among you.
¹¹ My days have passed, my plans are torn apart.
Yet the desires of my heart
¹² turn night into day;
    in the face of darkness light is near.
¹³ If I hope for Sheol as my home,
    if I make my bed in darkness,
¹⁴ if I say to the pit, ‘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 gates of Sheol?
    Will we descend together into the dust?”