# Job 17 (New King James Version)
Job Prays for Relief

##### Chapter 17
###### 1 "My spirit is broken,  
My days are extinguished,  
The grave _is ready_ for me.  

###### 2 _Are_ not mockers with me?  
And does not my eye dwell on their provocation?

###### 3 "Now put down a pledge for me with Yourself.  
Who _is_ he _who_ will shake hands with me?  

###### 4 For You have hidden their heart from understanding;  
Therefore You will not exalt _them._  

###### 5 He who speaks flattery to _his_ friends,  
Even the eyes of his children will fail.

###### 6 "But He has made me a 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 members _are_ like shadows.  

###### 8 Upright _men_ are astonished at this,  
And the innocent stirs himself up against the hypocrite.  

###### 9 Yet the righteous will hold to his way,  
And he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger.

###### 10 "But please, come back again, all of you,  
For I shall not find _one_ wise _man_ among you.  

###### 11 My days are past,  
My purposes are broken off,  
_Even_ the thoughts of my heart.  

###### 12 They change the night into day;  
'The light _is_ near,' _they say,_ in the face of darkness.  

###### 13 If I wait _for_ the grave _as_ my house,  
If I make my bed in the darkness,  

###### 14 If I say to corruption, 'You _are_ my father,'  
And to the worm, 'You _are_ my mother and my sister,'  

###### 15 Where then _is_ my hope?  
As for my hope, who can see it?  

###### 16 _Will_ they go down to the gates of Sheol?  
Shall _we have_ rest together in the dust?"