Job 17
What Happens in This Chapter
Job keeps talking about how sick and sad he feels. He says his life is almost over and the grave is waiting. His friends mock him instead of helping, and he says none of them are wise. He asks where his hope could possibly be.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
1Job said, "My spirit is broken. My days are used up. The grave is waiting for me."
2Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
2"People all around me laugh at me. I have to watch them mock me every day."
3Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?
3"God, please promise to stand up for me. Nobody else will speak for me."
The old words say "strike hands." Back then people shook hands to promise to pay someone's debt. Job wants God to make that kind of promise for him.
4For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
4"You have kept my friends from understanding. So you will not let them win."
5He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
5"Suppose a man turns on his friends for money. Then his own children will suffer."
6He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
6"God has made me a name people use as a joke. People spit in my face."
A "byword" is a name people say when they want to make fun of someone.
7Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
7"My eyes have grown weak from crying. My whole body is thin like a shadow."
8Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
8"Good people are shocked when they see this. Honest people are upset at those who do wrong."
9The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
9"Still, a good person keeps on doing what is right. Someone who has done no wrong grows stronger."
10But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
10"But 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.
11"My days are gone. My plans are ruined. Even the wishes in my heart are broken."
12They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
12"My friends say night is really day. They say light is near when it is dark."
13If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
13"What if I look for the grave to be my home? What if I make my bed in the dark?"
14I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
14"What if I say to the rotting ground, 'You are my father'? What if I call the worm my mother and my sister?"
15And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
15"Then where is my hope? Who could 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.
16"Will my hope go down to the gates of the grave? Will we rest together in the dust?"
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