Job 17

KING JAMES BIBLE	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.	1 My spirit is broken, my lamp of life extinguished; my burial is at hand.
2 Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?	2 I am indeed mocked, and, as their provocation mounts, my eyes grow dim.
3 Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?	3 Grant me one to offer you a pledge on my behalf: who is there that will give surety for me?
4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.	4 You darken their minds to knowledge; therefore they do not understand.
5 He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.	5 My lot is described as evil,
6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.	6 and I am made a byword of the people; their object lesson I have become.
7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.	7 My eye has grown blind with anguish, and all my frame is shrunken to a shadow.
8 Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.	8 Upright men are astonished at this, and the innocent aroused against the wicked.
9 The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.	9 Yet the righteous shall hold to his way, and he who has clean hands increase in strength.
10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.	10 But turn now, and come on again; for I shall not find a wise man among you!
11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.	11 My days are passed away, my plans are at an end, the cherished purposes of my heart.
12 They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.	12 Such men change the night into day; where there is darkness they talk of approaching light.
13 If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.	13 If I look for the nether world as my dwelling, if I spread my couch in the darkness,
14 I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou are my mother, and my sister.	14 If I must call corruption "my father," and the maggot "my mother" and "my sister,"
15 And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?	15 Where then is my hope, and my prosperity, who shall see?
16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.	16 Will they descend with me into the nether world? Shall we go down together into the dust?