Job 17-19

Holman Christian Standard Bible

17 My spirit is broken.
My days are extinguished.
A graveyard^(A) awaits me.
² Surely mockers surround^[a] me
and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.^(B)

³ Make arrangements! Put up security for me.^[b](C)
Who else will be my sponsor?^[c]
4 You have closed their minds to understanding,
therefore You will not honor them.
⁵ If a man informs on his friends for a price,
the eyes of his children will fail.

⁶ He has made me an object of scorn to the people;
I have become a man people spit at.^[d](D)
7 My eyes have grown dim from grief,
and my whole body has become but a shadow.
⁸ The upright are appalled^(E) at this,
and the innocent are roused against the godless.
⁹ Yet the righteous person will hold to his way,
and the one whose hands are clean^(F) will grow stronger.
¹⁰ But come back and try again, all of you.^[e]
I will not find a wise man among you.

¹¹ My days have slipped by;
my plans have been ruined,
even the things dear to my heart.
¹² They turned night into day
and made light seem near in the face of darkness.^(G)
13 If I await Sheol as my home,
spread out my bed in darkness,
¹⁴ and say to corruption: You are my father,
and to the maggot: My mother or my sister,^(H)
15 where then is my hope?^(I)
Who can see any hope for me?
¹⁶ Will it go down to the gates of Sheol,^(J)
or will we descend together to the dust?

² How long until you stop talking?
Show some sense, and then we can talk.
³ Why are we regarded as cattle,
as stupid in your sight?
⁴ You who tear yourself in anger^[f]—
should the earth be abandoned on your account,
or a rock be removed from its place?

⁵ Yes, the light^(L) of the wicked^(M) is extinguished;
the flame of his fire does not glow.
⁶ The light in his tent grows dark,^(N)
and the lamp beside him is put out.
⁷ His powerful stride is shortened,
and his own schemes trip him up.^(O)
8 For his own feet lead him into a net,
and he strays into its mesh.
⁹ A trap catches him by the heel;
a noose seizes him.
¹⁰ A rope lies hidden for him on the ground,
and a snare waits for him along the path.
¹¹ Terrors frighten him on every side^(P)
and harass him at every step.
¹² His strength is depleted;
disaster lies ready for him to stumble.^[g]
13 Parts of his skin are eaten away;
death’s firstborn consumes his limbs.
¹⁴ He is ripped from the security of his tent
and marched away to the king of terrors.
¹⁵ Nothing he owned remains in his tent.
Burning sulfur^(Q) is scattered over his home.
¹⁶ His roots below dry up,
and his branches above wither away.^(R)
17 All memory^(S) of him perishes from the earth;
he has no name anywhere.^[h]
18 He is driven from light to darkness
and chased from the inhabited world.
¹⁹ He has no children or descendants among his people,
no survivor where he used to live.^(T)
20 Those in the west are appalled^(U) at his fate,
while those in the east tremble in horror.
²¹ Indeed, such is the dwelling of the unjust man,
and this is the place of the one who does not know God.^(V)

² How long will you torment me
and crush me with words?
³ You have humiliated me ten times now,
and you mistreat^[i] me without shame.^(W)
4 Even if it is true that I have sinned,
my mistake concerns only^[j] me.
⁵ If you really want to appear superior^(X) to me
and would use my disgrace as evidence against me,
⁶ then understand that it is God who has wronged me
and caught me in His net.^(Y)

⁷ I cry out: “Violence!” but get no response;^(Z)
I call for help, but there is no justice.
⁸ He has blocked^(AA) my way so that I cannot pass through;
He has veiled my paths with darkness.^(AB)
9 He has stripped me of my honor
and removed the crown from my head.
¹⁰ He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined.^[k]
He uproots my hope like a tree.^(AC)
11 His anger^(AD) burns against me,
and He regards me as one of His enemies.^(AE)
12 His troops advance together;
they construct a ramp^[l] against me
and camp^(AF) around my tent.

¹³ He has removed my brothers from me;
my acquaintances have abandoned me.^(AG)
14 My relatives stop coming by,
and my close friends have forgotten me.
¹⁵ My house guests^[m] and female servants regard me as a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their sight.^(AH)
16 I call for my servant, but he does not answer,
even if I beg him with my own mouth.
¹⁷ My breath is offensive to my wife,
and my own family^[n] finds me repulsive.
¹⁸ Even young boys scorn me.
When I stand up, they mock me.^(AI)
19 All of my best friends^[o] despise me,^(AJ)
and those I love have turned against me.^(AK)
20 My skin and my flesh cling to my bones;
I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

²¹ Have mercy on me, my friends,^(AL) have mercy,
for God’s hand^(AM) has struck me.^(AN)
22 Why do you persecute me as God does?
Will you never get enough of my flesh?

²³ I wish that my words were written down,
that they were recorded on a scroll
²⁴ or were inscribed in stone forever
by an iron stylus and lead!
²⁵ But I know my living Redeemer,^[p](AO)
and He will stand on the dust^[q] at last.^[r](AP)
26 Even after my skin has been destroyed,^[s]
yet I will see God in^[t] my flesh.^(AQ)
27 I will see Him myself;
my eyes will look at Him, and not as a stranger.^[u]
My heart longs^[v] within me.^(AR)

²⁸ If you say, “How will we pursue him,
since the root of the problem lies with him?”^[w]
29 then be afraid of the sword,
because wrath brings punishment by the sword,^(AS)
so that you may know there is a judgment.