Job 17

1 My spirit is broken, my days are cut short, the grave awaits me.
2 Surely mockers surround me; my eyes must dwell on their hostility.
3 “Give me, O God, the pledge you demand. Who else will put up security for me?
4 You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore you will not let them triumph.
5 If anyone denounces their friends for reward, the eyes of their children will fail.
6 “God has made me a byword to everyone, a man in whose face people spit.
7 My eyes have grown dim with grief; my whole frame is but a shadow.
8 The upright are appalled at this; the innocent are aroused against the ungodly.
9 Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways, and those with clean hands will grow stronger.
10 “But come on, all of you, try again! I will not find a wise man among you.
11 My days have passed, my plans are shattered. Yet the desires of my heart
12 turn night into day; in the face of the darkness light is near.
13 If the only home I hope for is the grave, if I spread out my bed in the realm of darkness,
14 if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’
15 where then is my hope— who can see any hope for me?
16 Will it go down to the gates of death? Will we descend together into the dust?”

Cross References 34

  • 1. Psalms 143:4
  • 2. Isaiah 38:12
  • 3. Psalms 88:3-4; Ecclesiastes 12:1-7
  • 4. S Job 11:3; 1 Samuel 1:6-7
  • 5. S Job 6:14; Psalms 22:7; Psalms 119:51; Jeremiah 20:7; Lamentations 3:14
  • 6. Psalms 35:27; Psalms 119:122
  • 7. Proverbs 6:1
  • 8. Psalms 35:2; Psalms 40:17; Isaiah 38:14
  • 9. S Job 12:12
  • 10. S Exodus 22:15
  • 11. S Job 11:20
  • 12. S 1 Kings 9:7; Job 30:9; Jeremiah 15:4
  • 13. S ver 2
  • 14. S Numbers 12:14
  • 15. S Job 16:8
  • 16. S Job 2:12; S Job 16:16
  • 17. S Exodus 4:14; Job 22:19
  • 18. Proverbs 4:18
  • 19. S 2 Samuel 22:21; S Job 9:30; Job 22:30
  • 20. S 1 Samuel 2:4; Psalms 84:7
  • 21. S Job 12:2
  • 22. ver 15; Isaiah 38:10
  • 23. S Job 7:6
  • 24. Isaiah 50:11
  • 25. Job 5:17-26; S Job 11:17
  • 26. S 2 Samuel 14:14; S Job 3:13
  • 27. Psalms 139:8
  • 28. Psalms 88:18
  • 29. Job 13:28; Job 30:28,30; Psalms 16:10; Psalms 49:9
  • 30. S Job 4:19; S Job 7:5; Job 21:26
  • 31. S Job 7:6
  • 32. Psalms 31:22; Lamentations 3:18; Ezekiel 37:11
  • 33. Job 3:17-19; S Job 7:9; Job 33:28; Psalms 9:13; Psalms 30:3; Psalms 107:18; Isaiah 38:10,17; John 2:6
  • 34. S Genesis 2:7; S Job 3:19; Job 20:11; Job 21:26

Job 17 Commentaries

Scripture quoted by permission.  Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.  NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica.  All rights reserved worldwide.