Job Prays for Relief
1 “My spirit is broken,
My days are extinguished,
# The graveisreadyfor me.
2 Arenot mockers with me?
# And does not my eye dwell on theirprovocation?
3 “Now put down a pledge for me with Yourself.
# Whoishewhowill shake hands with me?
4 For You have hidden their heart fromunderstanding;
Therefore You will not exaltthem.
5 He who speaks flattery tohisfriends,
# Even the eyes of his children willfail.
6 “But He has made mea byword of the people,
And I have become one in whose face men spit.
7 My eye has also grown dim because of sorrow,
And all my membersarelike shadows.
8 Uprightmenare astonished at this,
And the innocent stirs himself up against the hypocrite.
9 Yet the righteous will hold to hisway,
# And he who hasclean hands will be stronger and stronger.
10 “But please,come back again, all of you,
For I shall not findonewisemanamong you.
11 My days are past,
My purposes are broken off,
Eventhe thoughts of my heart.
12 They change the night into day;
‘The lightisnear,’theysay,in the face of darkness.
13 If I waitforthe graveasmy house,
If I make my bed in the darkness,
14 If I say to corruption, ‘Youaremy father,’
And to the worm, ‘Youaremy mother and my sister,’
15 Where thenismyhope?
As for my hope, who can see it?
16 Willthey go downto the gates of Sheol?
# Shallwehaverest together in the dust?”