Ayub 17
"My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct,
And the grave is ready for me.
2Surely there are mockers with me,
My eye dwells on their provocation.
3"Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with
yourself.
Who is there who will strike hands with me?
4For you have hidden their heart from
understanding,
Therefore you shall not exalt them.
5He who denounces his friends for a prey,
Even the eyes of his children shall fail.
6"But he has made me a byword of the people.
They spit in my face.
7My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow.
All my members are as a shadow.
8Upright men shall be astonished at this.
The innocent shall stir up himself against the
godless.
9Yet shall the righteous hold on his way.
He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and
stronger.
10But as for you all, come on now again;
I shall not find a wise man among you.
11My days are past, my plans are broken
off,
As are the thoughts of my heart.
12They change the night into day,
Saying 'The
light is near' in the presence of
darkness.
13If I look for the grave as my house,
If I have spread my couch in the darkness,
14If I have said to corruption, 'You are my father;'
To the worm, 'My mother,' and 'my sister;'
15Where then is my hope?
As for my hope, who shall see it?
16Shall it go down with me to the gates of
the grave,
Or descend together into the dust?"