Job Seeks Hope

1“My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished;

The [†]grave is ready for me.

2Surely mockers are with me,

And my eye [†]gazes on their provocation.

3“Establish, now, a pledge for me with Yourself;

Who is there that will clap my hand in pledge?

4For You have hidden their heart from insight,

Therefore You will not exalt them.

5He who informs against friends for a share of the spoil,

The eyes of his children also will come to an end.

6“But He has made me a byword of the people,

And I am [†]one at whom men spit.

7My eye has also grown dim because of grief,

And all my members are as a shadow.

8The upright will be appalled at this,

And the innocent will stir up himself against the godless.

9Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his way,

And he who has clean hands will grow mightier and mightier.

10But come again all of [†]you now,

For I do not find a wise man among you.

11My days are past; my plans are torn apart,

Even the wishes of my heart.

12They make night into day, saying,

‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.

13If I hope for Sheol as my home,

I [†]make my bed in the darkness;

14If I call to the pit, ‘You are my father’;

To the worm, ‘my mother and my sister’;

15Where now is my hope?

And who beholds my hope?

16[†]Will it go down with me to Sheol?

Shall we together go down into the dust?”