My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct,
The grave is ready for me.
Surely there are {Hebrew: mockery.}mockers with me,
And mine eye dwelleth upon their provocation.
Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself;
Who is there that will strike hands with me?
For thou hast hid their heart from understanding:
Therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
He that denounceth his friends for a {Hebrew: portion.}prey,
Even the eyes of his children shall fail.
But he hath made me a byword of the people;
And they spit in my face.
Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow,
And all my members are as a shadow.
Upright men shall be astonished at this,
And the innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
Yet shall the righteous hold on his way,
And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.
But as for you all, come on now again;
{Or, For I find not}And I shall not find a wise man among you.
My days are past, my purposes are broken off,
Even the {Hebrew: possessions.}thoughts of my heart.
They change the night into day:
The light, say they, is near {Or, because of}unto the darkness.
If I {Or, hope, Sheol is my house; I have spread…I have said…And where now is my hope?}look for Sheol as my house;
If I have spread my couch in the darkness;
If I have said to {Or, the pit}corruption, Thou art my father;
To the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister;
Where then is my hope?
And as for my hope, who shall see it?
It shall go down to the bars of Sheol,
When once there is rest in the dust.
Querverweise zu Hiob 17,16 Hiob 17,16
The {Hebrew: bars of his skin.}members of his body shall be devoured,Yea, the first-born of death shall devour his members.
There the wicked cease from {Or, raging}troubling;And there the weary are at rest.
There the prisoners are at ease together;They hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
The small and the great are there:And the servant is free from his master.
He shall be rooted out of his tent where he trusteth;And {Hebrew: it shall (or, thou shall) bring him.}he shall be brought to the king of terrors.
Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.
{Or, That he may keep back}He keepeth back his soul from the pit,And his life from perishing by the {Or, weapons}sword.
He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, {Another reading is, While all his bones are firm.}And with continual strife in his bones;
So that his life abhorreth bread,And his soul dainty food.
His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen;And his bones that were not seen stick out.
Yea, his soul draweth near unto the pit,And his life to the destroyers.
If there be with him {Or, a messenger}an angel,An interpreter, one {Or, of the thousand}among a thousand,To show unto man {Or, his uprightness}what is right for him;
{Or, And he be gracious and say ransom his flesh &c.}Then God is gracious unto him, and saith,Deliver him from going down to the pit,I have found a ransom.
His flesh shall be fresher than a child's;He returneth to the days of his youth.
He prayeth unto God, and he is favorable unto him,So that he seeth his face with joy:And he restoreth unto man his righteousness.
He {Or, looketh upon men}singeth before men, and saith,I have sinned, and perverted that which was right,And {Or, it was nor requited unto me Or, it was not meet for me}it profited me not:
He hath redeemed my soul from going into the pit,And my life shall behold the light.
{Or, but we ourselves}yea, we ourselves have had the {Greek: answer.}sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead:
I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit;I am as a man that hath no help,
Cast {Or, away}off among the dead,Like the slain that lie in the grave,Whom thou rememberest no more,And they are cut off from thy hand.
Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit,In dark places, in the deeps.
Thy wrath lieth hard upon me,And thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. [Selah
Thou hast put mine acquaintance far from me;Thou hast made me an abomination unto them:I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.
Make haste to answer me, O Jehovah; my spirit faileth:Hide not thy face from me,Lest I become like them that go down into the pit.
Behold, it was for my peace that I had great bitterness:But {Hebrew: thou hast loved my soul from the pit.}thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of {Or, nothingness}corruption;For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
For Sheol cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee:They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
I went down to the bottoms of the mountains;The earth with its bars closed upon me for ever:Yet hast thou brought up my life from {Or, corruption}the pit, O Jehovah my God.