Jó 17

¹ My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.

² Surely there are mockers with me, and mine eye abideth in their provocation.

³ Give now a pledge, be surety for me with Thyself; who else is there that will strike hands with me?

⁴ For Thou hast hid their heart from understanding; therefore shalt Thou not exalt them.

⁵ He that denounceth his friends for the sake of flattery, even the eyes of his children shall fail.

⁶ He hath made me also a byword of the people; and I am become one in whose face they spit.

⁷ Mine eye also is dimmed by reason of vexation, and all my members are as a shadow.

⁸ Upright men are astonished at this, and the innocent stirreth up himself against the godless.

⁹ Yet the righteous holdeth on his way, and he that hath clean hands waxeth stronger and stronger.

¹⁰ But as for you all, do ye return, and come now; and I shall not find a wise man among you.

¹¹ My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.

¹² They change the night into day; the light is short because of darkness.

¹³ If I look for the nether-world as my house; if I have spread my couch in the darkness;

¹⁴ If I have said to corruption: 'Thou art my father', to the worm: 'Thou art my mother, and my sister';

¹⁵ Where then is my hope? And as for my hope, who shall see it?

¹⁶ They shall go down to the bars of the nether-world, when we are at rest together in the dust.