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About this chapterJob's spirit is broken, his days are extinguished, and the grave is ready for him. He says mockers surround him and asks God to be his pledge, since no one else will stand for him. Job feels that his friends' minds are closed and their counsel offers no hope. He compares his hope to a house in the grave, asking where his hope could be. The chapter is one of the bleakest, yet even here Job addresses God as the only one who can guarantee him, showing how desperation can still be prayer.

Job's spirit is broken, his days are extinguished, and the grave is ready for him. He says mockers surround him and asks God to be his pledge, since no one else will stand for him. Job feels that his friends' minds are closed and their counsel offers no hope. He compares his hope to a house in the grave, asking where his hope could be. The chapter is one of the bleakest, yet even here Job addresses God as the only one who can guarantee him, showing how desperation can still be prayer.

Themes

  • Desperation
  • No human helper
  • God as guarantor

Key verses

Audio Bible · Job 17

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Job 17

Berean Standard Bible16 verses · 1 min read

1“My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me. 2Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion. 3Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand. Who else will be my guarantor? 4You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them. 5If a man denounces his friends for a price, the eyes of his children will fail. 6He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit. 7My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow. 8The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent are stirred against the godless. 9Yet a righteous one holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger. 10But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you. 11My days have passed; my plans are broken off— even the desires of my heart. 12They have turned night into day, making light seem near in the face of darkness. 13If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness, 14and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’ 15where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me? 16Will it go down to the gates of Sheol? Will we go down together into the dust?”

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Verses in Job 17

Chapters of Job

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