Job 17

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 My breathing is growing weaker and the gravediggers are gathering for me.	1 My spirit will be wasted, my days will be shortened, and only the grave will left for me.
2 Scoffers are my only companions, their harshness haunts my nights.	2 I have not sinned, yet my eye remains in bitterness.
3 So you must go bail for me to yourself, for which of them cares to clap his hand on mine?	3 Free me, O Lord, and set me beside you, and let the hand of anyone you wish fight against me.
4 For you have shut their hearts to reason, hence not a hand is lifted.	4 You have set their heart far from discipline; therefore, they will not be praised.
5 Just so is a man who invites his friends to share his property while the eyes of his own childrenlanguish.	5 He promises prey to his companions, but the eyes of his sons will grow faint.
6 I have become a byword among foreigners, and a creature on whose face to spit,	6 He has posted me like a proverb to the people, and I am an example in their presence.
7 since I am nearly blind with grief and my limbs are reduced to a shadow.	7 My eyesight has been clouded by indignation, and my limbs have been reduced, as if to nothing.
8 Any honest person is appal ed at the sight, the innocent is indignant at the sinner.	8 The just will be astounded over this, and the innocent will be stirred up against the hypocrite.
9 Anyone upright grows stronger step by step: and anyone whose hands are clean grows ever in vigour!	9 And the just will cling to his way, and clean hands will increase strength.
10 Come on then, al of you, back to the attack! I shall not find one wise man among you!	10 Therefore, be converted, all of you, and approach, for I do not find in you any wisdom.
11 My days are over, so are my plans, my heart-strings are broken;	11 My days have passed away; my thoughts have been scattered, tormenting my heart.
12 yet they would have me believe that night is day, that light to dispel the darkness is at hand,	12 They have turned night into day, and I hope for light again after the darkness.
13 when al I want, in fact, is to dwel in Sheol and in that darkness there to make my bed!	13 If I should wait, the underworld is my house, and in darkness I have spread out my bed.
14 To the tomb, I cry, 'You are my father!' -- to the worm, 'You are my mother-you, my sister!'	14 I have said to decay and to worms: “You are my father, my mother, and my sister.”
15 Where then is my hope? Who can see any happiness for me?	15 Therefore, where is my expectation now, and who is it that considers my patience?
16 unless they come down to Sheol with me, all of us sinking into the dust together?	16 Everything of mine will descend into the deepest underworld; do you think that, in that place at least, there will be rest for me?