Job 16:22-17:9

GOD’S WORD Translation

²²because in a few short years I will take the path of no return.^[a]

Job Pleads with God to Declare Him Honest

17 “My spirit is broken.
My days have been snuffed out.
The cemetery ⌞is waiting⌟ for me.
²Certainly, mockers are around me.
My eyes are focused on their opposition.
³Please guarantee my bail yourself.
Who else will guarantee it with a handshake?
⁴You have closed their minds so that they cannot understand.
That is why you will not honor them.
⁵(Whoever turns in friends to get their property
should have his children’s eyesight fail.)

Job Says to His Friends: I’m Still Wiser Than You

⁶“Now he has made me a laughingstock for many people.
Now they spit in my face.
⁷Now my eyes are blurred from grief.
Now all my limbs are like a shadow.
⁸Decent people are shocked by this,
and it stirs up the innocent against godless people.
⁹Yet, the righteous person clings to his way,
and the one with clean hands grows stronger.