17:1 “My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished,
The ①grave is ready for me.
▷ ①Lit graves are
17:2 Mockers are certainly with me,
And my eye ①gazes on their provocation.
▷ ①Lit dwells
17:3 “Make a pledge for me with Yourself;
Who is there that will ①be my guarantor?
▷ ①Lit strike hands with me
17:4 For You have ①kept their hearts away from understanding;
Therefore You will not exalt them.
▷ ①Lit hidden
17:5 He who informs against friends for a share of the spoils,
The eyes of his children also will perish.
17:6 “But He has made me a proverb among the people,
And I am ①one at whom people spit.
▷ ①Lit a spitting to the faces
17:7 My eye has also become inexpressive because of grief,
And all my body parts are like a shadow.
17:8 The upright will be appalled at this,
And the innocent will stir himself up against the godless.
17:9 Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his way,
And the one who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
17:10 But come again all of ①you now,
For I do not find a wise man among you.
▷ ①As in some mss and ancient versions; MT them
17:11 My days are past, my plans are torn apart,
The wishes of my heart.
17:12 They make night into day, saying,
‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.
17:13 If I hope for ①Sheol as my home,
I ②make my bed in the darkness;
▷ ①I.e., the netherworld ②Lit spread out
17:14 If I call to the grave, ‘You are my father’;
To the maggot, ‘my mother and my sister’;
17:15 Where then is my hope?
And who looks at my hope?
17:16 ①Will it go down with me to Sheol?
Shall we together go down into the dust?”
▷ ①As in LXX; Heb possibly Let my limbs sink down to Sheol, since there is rest in the dust for all.