English / ERV
Job 17
Easy-to-Read Version, 2006
- 1My spirit is broken; I am ready to give up. My life is almost gone; the grave is waiting for me.
- 2People stand around me and laugh at me. I watch them as they tease and insult me.
- 3“God, give me some support. No one else will!
- 4You have closed my friends’ minds, and they don’t understand. Please don’t let them win.
- 5You know what people say: ‘A man neglects his own children to help his friends.’[1] But my friends have turned against me.
- 6God has made my name a bad word to everyone. People spit in my face.
- 7My eyes are almost blind from my grief. My whole body is as thin as a shadow.
- 8Good people wonder how this could happen. The innocent are upset with anyone who is against God.
- 9But those who do right will continue to do what is right. Those who are not guilty grow stronger and stronger.
- 10“But come on, all of you, and try to prove me wrong. I don’t find any of you to be wise.
- 11My life is passing away, and my plans are destroyed. My hope is gone.
- 12Everything is confused— night is day, and evening comes when it should be dawn.
- 13“I might hope for the grave to be my new home. I might hope to make my bed in the dark grave.
- 14I might say to the grave, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worms, ‘my mother’ or ‘my sister.’
- 15But you can’t really call that hope, can you? Does anyone see any hope for me?