Job 17-19

Amplified Bible

³ 
“Give me a pledge (guarantee, promise) with Yourself [acknowledge my innocence before my death];
Who is there that will ^[a]be my guarantor and give security for me?
⁴ 
“But You [Lord] have closed their hearts to understanding,
Therefore You will not exalt them [by giving a verdict against me].
⁵ 
“He who denounces and informs against his friends for a share of the spoil,
The eyes of his children will also languish and fail.

⁶ 
“But He has made me a byword and mockery among the people,
And I have become one in whose face people spit.
⁷ 
“My eye has grown dim (unexpressive) because of grief,
And all my [body’s] members are [wasted away] like a shadow.
⁸ 
“The upright will be [astonished and] appalled at this,
And the innocent will stir himself up against the godless and polluted.
⁹ 
“Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his ways,
And he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.^(A)
10 
“But as for all of you, come back again,
Even though I do not find a wise man among you.
¹¹ 
“My days are past, my purposes and plans are frustrated and torn apart;
The wishes of my heart [are broken].
¹² 
“These [thoughts try to] make the night into the day;
‘The light is near,’ they say in the presence of darkness [but they pervert the truth].
¹³ 
“But if I look to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) as my home,
If I make my bed in the darkness,
¹⁴ 
If I call out to the pit (grave), ‘You are my father’;
And to the worm [that feeds on decay], ‘You are my mother and my sister [because I will soon be closest to you],’
¹⁵ 
Where now is my hope?
And who regards or considers or is even concerned about my hope?
¹⁶ 
“Will my hope go down with me to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead)?
Shall we go down together in the dust?”

² 
“How long will you hunt for words and continue these speeches?
Do some clear thinking and show understanding and then we can talk.
³ 
“Why are we regarded as beasts,
As if [we are] stupid (senseless) in your eyes?
⁴ 
“You who tear yourself apart in anger,
Is the earth to be abandoned for your sake,
Or the rock to be moved out of its place?

⁵ 
“Indeed, the light of the wicked will be put out,
And the flame of his fire will not shine.^(B)
6 
“The light will be dark in his tent,
And his lamp beside him will be put out.^(C)
7 
“The vigorous stride will be shortened,
And his own counsel and the scheme [in which he trusted] will bring his downfall.
⁸ 
“For the wicked is thrown into a net by his own feet (wickedness),
And he steps on the webbing [of the lattice-covered pit].
⁹ 
“A snare catches him by the heel,
And a trap snaps shut on him.
¹⁰ 
“A noose is hidden for him on the ground,
And a trap for him on the path.
¹¹ 
“Terrors frighten him on every side
And chase at his heels.
¹² 
“The strength [of the wicked] is famished and weakened,
And disaster is ready at his side [if he stops].
¹³ 
“His skin is devoured by disease;
The firstborn of death [the worst of diseases] consumes his limbs.
¹⁴ 
“He is torn from his tent which he trusted [for safety],
And he is marched and brought to the king of terrors (death).
¹⁵ 
“Nothing of his dwells in his tent;
Brimstone (burning sulfur) is scattered over his dwelling [to purify it].
¹⁶ 
“The roots [of the wicked] are dried up below,
And above, his branch is cut off and withers.
¹⁷ 
“Memory of him perishes from the earth,
And he has no name on the street.
¹⁸ 
“He is driven and propelled from light into darkness,
And chased from the inhabited world.
¹⁹ 
“He has no offspring or prosperity among his people,
Nor any survivor where he sojourned.
²⁰ 
“Those in the west are astonished and appalled at his fate,
And those in the east are seized with horror.
²¹ 
“Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked and the ungodly,
And such is the place of him who does not know or recognize or honor God.”

² 
“How long will you torment and exasperate me
And crush me with words?
³ 
“These ten times you have insulted me;
You are not ashamed to wrong me [and harden your hearts against me].
⁴ 
“And if it were true that I have erred,
My error would remain with me [and I would be conscious of it].
⁵ 
“If indeed you [braggarts] vaunt and magnify yourselves over me
And prove my disgrace (humiliation) to me,
⁶ 
Know then that God has wronged me and overthrown me
And has closed His net around me.

¹³ 
“He has put my brothers far from me,
And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
¹⁴ 
“My relatives have failed [me],
And my intimate friends have forgotten me.
¹⁵ 
“Those who live [temporarily] in my house and my maids consider me a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their sight.
¹⁶ 
“I call to my servant, but he does not answer;
I have to implore him with words.
¹⁷ 
“My breath is repulsive to my wife,
And I am loathsome to my own brothers.
¹⁸ 
“Even young children despise me;
When I get up, they speak against me.
¹⁹ 
“All the men of my council hate me;
Those I love have turned against me.
²⁰ 
“My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh,
And I have escaped [death] by the skin of my teeth.
²¹ 
“Have pity on me! Have pity on me, O you my friends,
For the hand of God has touched me.
²² 
“Why do you persecute me as God does?
Why are you not satisfied with my flesh (anguish)?