Job Says He Has Become a Byword

1
“My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished,
The grave is {ready} for me. 2
“Surely mockers are with me,
And my eye gazes on their provocation.

 3
“Lay down, now, a pledge for me with Yourself;
Who is there that will be my guarantor? 4
“For You have kept their heart from understanding,
Therefore You will not exalt {them.} 5
“He who informs against friends for a share {of the spoil,}
The eyes of his children also will languish.

 6
“But He has made me a byword of the people,
And I am one at whom men spit. 7
“My eye has also grown dim because of grief,
And all my members are as a shadow. 8
“The upright will be appalled at this,
And the innocent will stir up himself against the godless. 9
“Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his way,
And he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger. 10
“But come again all of you now,
For I do not find a wise man among you. 11
“My days are past, my plans are torn apart,
{Even} the wishes of my heart. 12
“They make night into day, {saying,}
`The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness. 13
“If I look for Sheol as my home,
I make my bed in the darkness; 14
If I call to the pit, `You are my father’;
To the worm, `my mother and my sister’; 15
Where now is my hope?
And who regards my hope? 16
“Will it go down with me to Sheol?
Shall we together go down into the dust?