| Chapter 17 |
1 | 'My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.
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2 | Surely there are mockers with me, My eye dwells on their provocation.
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3 | 'Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?
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4 | For you have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore shall you not exalt them.
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5 | He who denounces his friends for a prey, Even the eyes of his children shall fail.
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6 | 'But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.
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7 | My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.
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8 | Upright men shall be astonished at this. The innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
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9 | Yet shall the righteous hold on his way. He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
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10 | But as for you all, come on now again; I shall not find a wise man among you.
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11 | My days are past, my plans are broken off, As are the thoughts of my heart.
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12 | They change the night into day, Saying 'The light is near' in the presence of darkness.
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13 | If I look for Sheol as my house, If I have spread my couch in the darkness,
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14 | If I have said to corruption, 'You are my father;' To the worm, 'My mother,' and 'my sister;'
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15 | Where then is my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it?
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16 | Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, Or descend together into the dust?'
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