UST JOB Chapter 17

17 My time to live is almost over. I have no strength left.

I am just about to die.

2 The people who are around me are continually making fun of me.

I have to watch them taunt me.

3 “God, even though you would be trying my case,

please also guarantee to yourself that I will appear in court and behave as a defendant should.

There is certainly no one else who will do that for me.

4 My friends will not vouch for me,

because you have prevented them from understanding that I am innocent.

Nevertheless, you will not prove them right by declaring me guilty.

5 I know that you will treat me justly because you make sure that people act justly.

For example, you punish people who give false testimony against their neighbors in exchange for a bribe.

You make their whole families suffer if they do that.

6 But because God is punishing me,

people use my name to mean someone who was formerly prosperous but who experienced disaster because he was wicked.

People even spit in my face to insult me.

7 Because I am very sad, it has become hard for me to see.

My whole body has become so thin that it is as if I am not even here.

8 When people who are truly righteous see what has happened to me, it shocks them.

It makes them want to punish people who really disobey God.

9 Those who are truly righteous will continue to do what is right,

and those who are innocent will continue to become stronger.

10 But as for you friends of mine,

we could continue talking,

but I do not think that I will conclude that even one of you is wise.

11 My time to live has almost ended.

I have not been able to do the things that I planned to do.

I can no longer hope that the things I most desired will happen.

12 My friends say that the troubles I am experiencing are actually a good thing

because God is using the troubles to correct me.

My friends say that because my troubles have become so bad,

that means they must nearly be over.

13 Suppose the only home I could hope to have was the place where dead people go.

Suppose I were going to stay in that dark place.

14 Suppose I considered the grave to be my family home,

and suppose I considered the worms that live in graves to be my family.

15 Then that would show that I truly do not have good things to hope for.

Everyone would recognize that I was not really hoping for anything.

16 It would be as if everything I hoped for were going to the place where dead people go.

Yes, it would be as if people were burying the things I have hoped for with me in a grave.”