17:1 My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.
17:2 Surely there are mockers with me, and mine eye abideth in their provocation.
17:3 Give now a pledge, be surety for me with Thyself; who else is there that will strike hands with me?
17:4 For Thou hast hid their heart from understanding; therefore shalt Thou not exalt them.
17:5 He that denounceth his friends for the sake of flattery, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
17:6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and I am become one in whose face they spit.
17:7 Mine eye also is dimmed by reason of vexation, and all my members are as a shadow.
17:8 Upright men are astonished at this, and the innocent stirreth up himself against the godless.
17:9 Yet the righteous holdeth on his way, and he that hath clean hands waxeth stronger and stronger.
17:10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now; and I shall not find a wise man among you.
17:11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
17:12 They change the night into day; the light is short because of darkness.
17:13 If I look for the nether-world as my house; if I have spread my couch in the darkness;
17:14 If I have said to corruption: 'Thou art my father', to the worm: 'Thou art my mother, and my sister';
17:15 Where then is my hope? And as for my hope, who shall see it?
17:16 They shall go down to the bars of the nether-world, when we are at rest together in the dust.