Job appeals from men to God.

17:1 “My spirit is consumed.
My days are extinct,
And the grave is ready for me.

17:2 Surely there are mockers with me.
My eye dwells on their provocation.

17:3 “Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself.
Who is there who will strike hands with me?

17:4 For you have hidden their heart from understanding,
Therefore you shall not exalt them.

17:5 He who denounces his friends for a prey,
Even the eyes of his children shall fail.

The unmerciful dealing of men with the afflicted may astonish, but not discourage the righteous.

17:6 “But he has made me a byword of the people.
They spit in my face.

17:7 My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow.
All my members are as a shadow.

17:8 Upright men shall be astonished at this.
The innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.

17:9 Yet shall the righteous hold on his way.
He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.

17:10 But as for you all, come on now again;
I shall not find a wise man among you.

His hope is not in life, but in death.

17:11 My days are past, my plans are broken off,
as are the thoughts of my heart.

17:12 They change the night into day,
saying

‘The light is near’

in the presence of darkness.

17:13 If I look for Sheol as my house,
if I have spread my couch in the darkness,

17:14 If I have said to corruption,

‘You are my father;’

to the worm,

‘My mother,’ and ‘my sister;’

17:15 where then is my hope?
as for my hope, who shall see it?

17:16 Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol,
or descend together into the dust?”