Job

Chapter 17

Job Prepares for Death

Job says his spirit is broken, his days are spent, and the grave now stands open before him while mockers still surround him. He asks God for the pledge no one else can give, rejects the friends as people without understanding, insists that the upright will still hold their way, and then turns back to the dark question of whether any hope remains when his true home seems to be the dust of Sheol.

This chapter carries forward the end of Job 16 by pressing the approach of death even harder. The hope of a heavenly witness does not disappear, but it now sits under the felt nearness of the grave, so that Job's argument becomes both a protest against false friends and a search for hope at the edge of burial.

1 section·121 words·~1 min read

Begin reading Zoom into first section

Reader

Job 17

A continuous BSB reading flow. Turn on the guide when you want authored orientation; leave it off when you simply want the text.

vv. 1-16

Job Prepares for Death

Open section

“¹My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; ²Surely mockers surround me, ³Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand. ⁴You have closed their minds to understanding; ⁵If a man denounces his friends for a price,

⁶He has made me a byword among the people, ⁷My eyes have grown dim with grief, ⁸The upright are appalled at this, ⁹Yet a righteous one holds to his way, ¹⁰But come back and try again, all of you.

¹¹My days have passed; my plans are broken off — ¹²They have turned night into day, ¹³If I look for Sheol as my home, ¹⁴and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ ¹⁵where then is my hope? ¹⁶Will it go down to the gates of Sheol?

Section map

Open the closer view when you want it.

Each section keeps the passage focused, adds summaries and cross references, and gives verse-level links.

01vv. 1-16Job Prepares for DeathJob says his life is failing and that the grave is waiting while mockers keep watch over him. He asks God himself to stand surety for him because the friends have been closed off from understanding, says the righteous will still persist though no wisdom can be found among these companions, and finally describes his plans as broken and the underworld as his only remaining house, asking where hope can possibly be found if it goes down with him into the dust.