Job’s Fifth Speech, Continued

1 “My spirit is pulled down; my days are extinguished;

the graveyard is for me.

2 Surelymockery is with me,

and my eye restson their provocation.

3 Please lay down a pledge for me with yourself;

who is he who will give security for my hand?

4 Indeed,you have closed their mind from understanding;

therefore, you will not let them triumph.

5 He denounces friends for reward,

sohis children’s eyes will fail.

6 “And he has made me a proverb forthe peoples,

and I am one before whom people spit.

7 And my eye has grown dim from grief,

and the limbs of my body are alllike a shadow.

8 The upright are appalled at this,

and the innocent excites himself over the godless.

9 Butthe righteous holds on to his way,

and he who has clean handsincreases in strength.

10 Butall of you must return—please come!

ButI shall not find a wise person among you.

11 “My days are past; my plans are broken down—

even the desires of my heart.

12 They make night into day,

saying, ‘Light is near to darkness.’

13 If I hope for Sheol as my house,

if I spread my couch in the darkness,

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

to the maggot, ‘You are my mother ormy sister,’

15 wherethen is my hope?

And who will see my hope?

16 Will they go down to the bars of Sheol?

Or shall we descend together into the dust?”