Chapter 17
001
"My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.
002
Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.
003
"Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?
004
For you have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore shall you not exalt them.
005
She who denounces her friends for a prey, Even the eyes of her children shall fail.
006
"But she has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.
007
My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.
008
Upright women shall be astonished at this. The innocent shall stir up herself against the godless.
009
Yet shall the righteous hold on her way. She who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
010
But as for you all, come on now again; I shall not find a wise woman among you.
011
My days are past, my plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.
012
They change the night into day, saying 'The light is near' in the presence of darkness.
013
If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness,
014
If I have said to corruption, 'You are my mother;' to the worm, 'My father,' and 'my brother;'
015
where then is my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
016
Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?"