Job
Chapter 17
Job keeps answering his friends. He says his life is almost over, the grave is waiting, and mockers surround him, so he asks God to be the one who guarantees his case. He tells his three friends that not one of them is wise. He ends by picturing the grave as his only home and asking where his hope has gone.
Plain reading written for preteens. Clear and complete, at about a fifth grade reading level.
My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
1My spirit is broken. My days are burning out. The grave is waiting for me.
2Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
2Mockers are all around me. My eyes have to watch them insult me.
3Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?
3God, put up the promise yourself. Who else will shake hands and back me?
"Strike hands" meant shaking hands to promise you would pay someone else's debt. Job is asking God to be the one who backs him, since no person will.
4For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
4You have closed their minds so they cannot understand. So you will not let them win.
5He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
5A man may turn on his friends for a reward. His own children's eyes will grow weak.
6He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
6He has made me a joke that everyone repeats. People spit in my face.
The KJV word "tabret" means a small drum, but the Hebrew word here is about spitting. People treat Job with disgust.
7Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
7My eyes are dim from grief. My whole body is thin as a shadow.
8Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
8Honest people are shocked when they see this. Innocent people are stirred up against those who ignore God.
9The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
9Still, a good person keeps going his way. The one with clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
10But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
10But all of you, come back and try again. I will not find one wise man among you.
11My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
11My days are gone. My plans are broken off. So are the wishes of my heart.
12They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
12These men call night day. They say light is near when darkness is all around.
13If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
13Suppose I look for a home in the grave. Suppose I spread out my bed in the dark.
14I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
14Suppose I say to the rot, "You are my father." Suppose I say to the worm, "You are my mother and my sister."
"Corruption" here means a dead body rotting in the ground. It does not mean dishonesty.
15And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
15Then where is my hope? Who can see any hope for me at all?
16They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
16Will my hope go down with me to the gates of the grave? Will we rest together in the dust?
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