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22 For when a few years have come,
    I will go the way of no return.

17 “My spirit is consumed.
    My days are extinct,
    and the grave is ready for me.
Surely there are mockers with me.
    My eye dwells on their provocation.

“Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with yourself.
    Who is there who will strike hands with me?
For you have hidden their heart from understanding,
    Therefore you will not exalt them.
He who denounces his friends for plunder,
    Even the eyes of his children will fail.

“But he has made me a byword of the people.
    They spit in my face.
My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow.
    All my members are as a shadow.
Upright men will be astonished at this.
    The innocent will stir himself up against the godless.
Yet the righteous will hold to his way.
    He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.

22 For when only a few years have elapsed,
    I’ll start down a path from which I’ll never return.”

Job Laments and Prepares for Death

17 “My spirit is crushed,
    my days are over;[a]
        it’s the grave for me!
Mockers surround me;
    I cannot stop staring at their hostility all through the night.
Offer, then, some collateral on my behalf.
    Is there anyone who will be my guarantor?

“Because you’re the one who closed their hearts to compassion;[b]
    therefore, you won’t let them triumph.
Now as for the one who testifies against his friends
    to take their property,[c]
        even the eyes of his children will fail.

“He has made me a byword among people;
    I’m being spit on in the face.
My eyes have grown weak from grief;
    and my whole body is as thin as a shadow.
The upright are appalled over this,
    and the innocent person is troubled by the godless.
But the righteous person will hold to his way,
    and those with clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.”

Footnotes

  1. Job 17:1 Lit. extinguished
  2. Job 17:4 Lit. understanding
  3. Job 17:5 Or inheritance