Job 17

Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?

1 "My spirit is broken; my days are j extinct;
k the graveyard is ready for me.
 2 Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their l provocation.

3 "Lay down a pledge for me with yourself;
who is there who will put up m security for me?
 4 Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.
 5 He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property -
the n eyes of his children will fail.

6 "He has made me o a byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom men spit.
 7 My p eye has grown dim from vexation,
and all my members are like q a shadow.
 8 The upright are r appalled at this,
and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
 9 Yet the righteous holds to his way,
and he who has s clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
 10 But you, t come on again, all of you,
and I shall not find a wise man among you.
 11 My u days are past; my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.
 12 They v make night into day:
'The light,' they say, 'is near to the darkness.' 1
13 If I hope for w Sheol as x my house,
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?
Who will see my hope?
 16 Will it go down to the bars of w Sheol?
Shall we y descend together z into the dust?"

  1. Cross References
    Job 18:5 - 6
    Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of his fire does not shine.
  2. Cross References
    Psalms 88:3 - 4
    For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
  3. Cross References
    1 Samuel 1:6 - 7
    And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb.
    Job 12:6
    The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure, who bring their god in their hand.
  4. Cross References
    Psalms 119:122
    Give your servant a pledge of good; let not the insolent oppress me.
    Isaiah 38:14
    Like a swallow or a crane I chirp; I moan like a dove. My eyes are weary with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my pledge of safety!
    Hebrews 7:22
    This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.
  5. Cross References
    Job 11:20
    But the eyes of the wicked will fail; all way of escape will be lost to them, and their hope is to breathe their last.
    Job 31:16
    If I have withheld anything that the poor desired, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail.
  6. Cross References
    Job 30:9
    And now I have become their song; I am a byword to them.
    Deuteronomy 28:37
    And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away.
    Psalms 44:14
    You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.
    Psalms 69:11
    When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.
  7. Cross References
    Psalms 6:7
    My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes.
    Psalms 31:9
    Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also.
  8. Cross References
    Job 14:2
    He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.
  9. Cross References
    Isaiah 52:14
    As many were astonished at you - his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind -
  10. Cross References
    Job 22:30
    He delivers even the one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.
  11. Cross References
    Job 6:29
    Please turn; let no injustice be done. Turn now; my vindication is at stake.
  12. Cross References
    Job 7:6
    My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and come to their end without hope.
    Job 9:25
    My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good.
  13. Cross References
    Job 11:17
    And your life will be brighter than the noonday; its darkness will be like the morning.
  14. Cross References
    Job 21:13
    They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol.
  15. Cross References
    Ecclesiastes 12:5
    They are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets -
  16. Cross References
    Job 17:13
    If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I make my bed in darkness.
  17. Cross References
    Job 3:17 - 19
    There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.
  18. Cross References
    Job 21:26
    They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them.
    Job 40:13
    Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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