Job 17 – read and compare multiple versions
Job 17
[1] “My spirit is consumed.
My days are extinct
and the grave is ready for me.
[2] Surely there are mockers with me.
My eye dwells on their provocation. [3] “Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with yourself.
Who is there who will strike hands with me?
[4] For you have hidden their heart from understanding,
therefore you will not exalt them.
[5] He who denounces his friends for plunder,
even the eyes of his children will fail. [6] “But he has made me a byword of the people.
They spit in my face.
[7] My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow.
All my members are as a shadow.
[8] Upright men will be astonished at this.
The innocent will stir himself up against the godless.
[9] Yet the righteous will hold to his way.
He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
[10] But as for you all, come back.
I will not find a wise man among you.
[11] My days are past.
My plans are broken off,
as are the thoughts of my heart.
[12] They change the night into day,
saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness.
[13] If I look for Sheol as my house,
if I have spread my couch in the darkness,
[14] if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’
[15] where then is my hope?
As for my hope, who will see it?
[16] Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol,
or descend together into the dust?”
My days are extinct
and the grave is ready for me.
[2] Surely there are mockers with me.
My eye dwells on their provocation. [3] “Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with yourself.
Who is there who will strike hands with me?
[4] For you have hidden their heart from understanding,
therefore you will not exalt them.
[5] He who denounces his friends for plunder,
even the eyes of his children will fail. [6] “But he has made me a byword of the people.
They spit in my face.
[7] My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow.
All my members are as a shadow.
[8] Upright men will be astonished at this.
The innocent will stir himself up against the godless.
[9] Yet the righteous will hold to his way.
He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
[10] But as for you all, come back.
I will not find a wise man among you.
[11] My days are past.
My plans are broken off,
as are the thoughts of my heart.
[12] They change the night into day,
saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness.
[13] If I look for Sheol as my house,
if I have spread my couch in the darkness,
[14] if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’
[15] where then is my hope?
As for my hope, who will see it?
[16] Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol,
or descend together into the dust?”