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Job Says He Has Become a Byword

¹ "My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished,
The ^(C1)grave is ready for me.

² "^(C1)Surely there are mockers and mockery with me,
And my eye gazes on their obstinacy and provocation.

³ "Give ^(C1)me a pledge (guarantee, promise) with Yourself acknowledge my innocence before my death;
Who is there that will ^(F1)be my guarantor and give security for me?

⁴ "But You Lord have ^(C1)closed their hearts to understanding,
Therefore You will not exalt them by giving a verdict against me.

⁵ "He who ^(C1)denounces and informs against his friends for a share of the spoil,
The ^(C2)eyes of his children will also languish and fail.

⁶ "But He has made me a ^(C1)byword and mockery among the people,
And I have become ^(C2)one in whose face people spit.

⁷ "My eye has grown ^(C1)dim (unexpressive) because of grief,
And all my body's ^(C2)members are wasted away like a shadow.

⁸ "The upright will be astonished and appalled at this,
And the ^(C1)innocent will stir himself up against the godless and polluted.

⁹ "Nevertheless ^(C1)the righteous will hold to his ways,
And ^(C2)he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger. ^(VR1)

¹⁰ "But as for all of you, come back again,
Even though I ^(C1)do not find a wise man among you.

¹¹ "My ^(C1)days are past, my purposes and plans are frustrated and torn apart;
The wishes of my heart are broken.

¹² "These thoughts try to make the night into the day;
'The light is near,' they say in the presence of darkness but they pervert the truth.

¹³ "But if I look to ^(C1)Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) as my home,
If I make my bed in the darkness,

¹⁴ If I call out to the ^(C1)pit (grave), 'You are my father';
And to the ^(C2)worm that feeds on decay, 'You are my mother and my sister because I will soon be closest to you,'

¹⁵ Where now is ^(C1)my hope?
And who regards or considers or is even concerned about my hope?

¹⁶ "Will my hope go down with me to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead)?
Shall we ^(C1)go down together in the dust?"