Job Complains to God
My Hopes Have Died
1 My hopes have died,
my time is up,
and the grave is ready.
2 All I can see are angry crowds,
making fun of me.
3 If you, Lord, don't help,
who will pay the price
for my release?
4 My friends won't really listen,
all because of you,
and so you must be the one
to prove them wrong.
5 They have condemned me,
just to benefit themselves;
now blind their children.
6 You, God, are the reason
I am insulted and spit on.
7 I am almost blind with grief;
my body is a mere shadow.
8 People who are truly good
would feel so alarmed,
that they would become angry
with my worthless friends.
9 They would do the right thing
and because they did,
they would grow stronger.
10 But none of my friends
show any sense.
11 My life is drawing to an end;
hope has disappeared.
12 But all my friends can do
is offer empty hopes.
13 I could tell the world below
to prepare me a bed.
14 Then I could greet the grave
as my father
and say to the worms,
“Hello, mother and sisters!”
15 But what kind of hope is that?
16 Will it keep me company
in the world of the dead?
1 The end of my life is near. I can hardly breathe;
there is nothing left for me but the grave.
2 I watch how bitterly everyone mocks me.
3 I am being honest, God. Accept my word.
There is no one else to support what I say.
4 You have closed their minds to reason;
don't let them triumph over me now.
5 In the old proverb someone betrays his friends for money,
and his children suffer for it.
6 And now people use this proverb against me;
they come and spit in my face.
7 My grief has almost made me blind;
my arms and legs are as thin as shadows.
8 Those who claim to be honest are shocked,
and they all condemn me as godless.
9 Those who claim to be respectable
are more and more convinced they are right.
10 But if all of them came and stood before me,
I would not find even one of them wise.
11 My days have passed; my plans have failed;
my hope is gone.
12 But my friends say night is daylight;
they say that light is near,
but I know I remain in darkness.
13 My only hope is the world of the dead,
where I will lie down to sleep in the dark.
14 I will call the grave my father,
and the worms that eat me
I will call my mother and my sisters.
15 Where is there any hope for me?
Who sees any?
16 Hope will not go with me
when I go down to the world of the dead.
