Job 17-18

New American Standard Bible 1995

³ “Lay down, now, a pledge ^(C)for me with Yourself;
Who is there that will ^[c]be my guarantor?
⁴ “For You have ^[d](D)kept their heart from understanding,
Therefore You will not exalt them.
⁵ “He who ^(E)informs against friends for a share of the spoil,
The ^(F)eyes of his children also will languish.

⁶ “But He has made me a ^(G)byword of the people,
And I am ^[e]one at whom men ^(H)spit.
⁷ “My eye has also grown ^(I)dim because of grief,
And all my ^(J)members are as a shadow.
⁸ “The upright will be appalled at this,
And the ^(K)innocent will stir up himself against the godless.
⁹ “Nevertheless ^(L)the righteous will hold to his way,
And ^(M)he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
¹⁰ “But come again all of ^[f]you now,
For I ^(N)do not find a wise man among you.
¹¹ “My ^(O)days are past, my plans are torn apart,
Even the wishes of my heart.
¹² “They make night into day, saying,
‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.
¹³ “If I look for ^(P)Sheol as my home,
I ^[g]make my bed in the darkness;
¹⁴ If I call to the ^(Q)pit, ‘You are my father’;
To the ^(R)worm, ‘my mother and my sister’;
¹⁵ Where now is ^(S)my hope?
And who regards my hope?
¹⁶ “^[h]Will it go down with me to Sheol?
Shall we together ^(T)go down into the dust?”

⁵ “Indeed, the ^(V)light of the wicked goes out,
And the ^[k]flame of his fire gives no light.
⁶ “The light in his tent is ^(W)darkened,
And his lamp goes out above him.
⁷ “His ^[l]vigorous stride is shortened,
And his ^(X)own scheme brings him down.
⁸ “For he is ^(Y)thrown into the net by his own feet,
And he steps on the webbing.
⁹ “A snare seizes him by the heel,
And a trap snaps shut on him.
¹⁰ “A noose for him is hidden in the ground,
And a trap for him on the path.
¹¹ “All around ^(Z)terrors frighten him,
And ^(AA)harry him at every step.
¹² “His strength is ^(AB)famished,
And calamity is ready at his side.
¹³ “^[m]His skin is devoured by disease,
The firstborn of death ^(AC)devours his ^[n]limbs.
¹⁴ “He is ^(AD)torn from ^[o]the security of his tent,
And ^[p]they march him before the king of ^(AE)terrors.
¹⁵ “^[q]There dwells in his tent nothing of his;
^(AF)Brimstone is scattered on his habitation.
¹⁶ “His ^(AG)roots are dried below,
And his ^(AH)branch is cut off above.
¹⁷ “^(AI)Memory of him perishes from the earth,
And he has no name abroad.
¹⁸ “^[r]He is driven from light ^(AJ)into darkness,
And ^(AK)chased from the inhabited world.
¹⁹ “He has no ^(AL)offspring or posterity among his people,
Nor any survivor where he sojourned.
²⁰ “Those ^[s]in the west are appalled at ^(AM)his ^[t]fate,
And those ^[u]in the east are seized with horror.
²¹ “Surely such are the ^(AN)dwellings of the wicked,
And this is the place of him who does not know God.”