17:1  "My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.

17:2  Surely there are mockers with me, My eye dwells on their provocation.

17:3  "Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?

17:4  For you have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore shall you not exalt them.

17:5  He who denounces his friends for a prey, Even the eyes of his children shall fail.

17:6  "But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.

17:7  My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.

17:8  Upright men shall be astonished at this. The innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.

17:9  Yet shall the righteous hold on his way. He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.

17:10  But as for you all, come on now again; I shall not find a wise man among you.

17:11  My days are past, my plans are broken off, As are the thoughts of my heart.

17:12  They change the night into day, Saying 'The light is near' in the presence of darkness.

17:13  If I look for Sheol as my house, If I have spread my couch in the darkness,

17:14  If I have said to corruption, 'You are my father;' To the worm, 'My mother,' and 'my sister;'

17:15  Where then is my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it?

17:16  Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, Or descend together into the dust?"