17:1 "My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.
17:2 Surely there are mockers with me, My eye dwells on their provocation.
17:3 "Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?
17:4 For you have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore shall you not exalt them.
17:5 He who denounces his friends for a prey, Even the eyes of his children shall fail.
17:6 "But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.
17:7 My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.
17:8 Upright men shall be astonished at this. The innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
17:9 Yet shall the righteous hold on his way. He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
17:10 But as for you all, come on now again; I shall not find a wise man among you.
17:11 My days are past, my plans are broken off, As are the thoughts of my heart.
17:12 They change the night into day, Saying 'The light is near' in the presence of darkness.
17:13 If I look for Sheol as my house, If I have spread my couch in the darkness,
17:14 If I have said to corruption, 'You are my father;' To the worm, 'My mother,' and 'my sister;'
17:15 Where then is my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it?
17:16 Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, Or descend together into the dust?"