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22 For soon I must go down that road
    from which I will never return.

Job Continues to Defend His Innocence

17 “My spirit is crushed,
    and my life is nearly snuffed out.
    The grave is ready to receive me.
I am surrounded by mockers.
    I watch how bitterly they taunt me.

“You must defend my innocence, O God,
    since no one else will stand up for me.
You have closed their minds to understanding,
    but do not let them triumph.
They betray their friends for their own advantage,
    so let their children faint with hunger.

“God has made a mockery of me among the people;
    they spit in my face.
My eyes are swollen with weeping,
    and I am but a shadow of my former self.
The virtuous are horrified when they see me.
    The innocent rise up against the ungodly.
The righteous keep moving forward,
    and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger.

22 For only a few years will pass
before I go the way of no return.

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

Accept my pledge! Put up security for me.(C)
Who else will be my sponsor?[b]
You have closed their minds to understanding,
therefore you will not honor them.
If a man denounces his friends for a price,
the eyes of his children will fail.

He has made me an object of scorn to the people;
I have become a man people spit at.[c](D)
My eyes have grown dim from grief,
and my whole body has become but a shadow.
The upright are appalled(E) at this,
and the innocent are roused against the godless.
Yet the righteous person will hold to his way,
and the one whose hands are clean(F) will grow stronger.

Footnotes

  1. 17:2 Lit are with
  2. 17:3 Or Who is there that will shake hands with me?
  3. 17:6 Lit become a spitting to the faces