3“Lay down, now, a pledge for me with Yourself;
         Who is there that will be my guarantor?

4“For You have kept their heart from understanding,
         Therefore You will not exalt them.

5“He who informs against friends for a share of the spoil,
         The eyes of his children also will languish.

6“But He has made me a byword of the people,
         And I am one at whom men spit.

7“My eye has also grown dim because of grief,
         And all my members are as a shadow.

8“The upright will be appalled at this,
         And the innocent will stir up himself against the godless.

9“Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his way,
         And he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.

10“But come again all of you now,
         For I do not find a wise man among you.

11“My days are past, my plans are torn apart,
         Even the wishes of my heart.

12“They make night into day, saying,
         ‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.

13“If I look for Sheol as my home,
         I make my bed in the darkness;

14If I call to the pit, ‘You are my father’;
         To the worm, ‘my mother and my sister’;

15Where now is my hope?
         And who regards my hope?

16“Will it go down with me to Sheol?
         Shall we together go down into the dust?”

NASB ©1995

American Standard Version
Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself; Who is there that will strike hands with me?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Deliver me O Lord, and set me beside thee, and let any man's hand fight against me.

Darby Bible Translation
Lay down now a pledge, be thou surety for me with thyself: who is he that striketh hands with me?

English Revised Version
Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself; who is there that will strike hands with me?

Webster's Bible Translation
Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?

World English Bible
"Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?

Young's Literal Translation
Place, I pray Thee, my pledge with Thee; Who is he that striketh hand with me?9Th Day. Persevering Grace.
"He is Faithful that Promised." "The righteous shall hold on his way."--JOB xvii. 9. Persevering Grace. Reader! how comforting to thee amid the ebbings and flowings of thy changing history, to know that the change is all with thee, and not with thy God! Thy spiritual bark may be tossed on waves of temptation, in many a dark midnight. Thou mayest think thy pilot hath left thee, and be ready continually to say, "Where is my God?" But fear not! The bark which bears thy spiritual destinies is in better …
John Ross Macduff—The Faithful Promiser

Whether Limbo is the Same as the Hell of the Damned?
Objection 1: It would seem that the limbo of hell is the same as the hell of the damned. For Christ is said to have "bitten" [*Allusion to Osee 13:14] hell, but not to have swallowed it, because He took some from thence but not all. Now He would not be said to have "bitten" hell if those whom He set free were not part of the multitude shut up in hell. Therefore since those whom He set free were shut up in hell, the same were shut up in limbo and in hell. Therefore limbo is either the same as hell, …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Christ Went Down into the Hell of the Lost?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ went down into the hell of the lost, because it is said by the mouth of Divine Wisdom (Ecclus. 24:45): "I will penetrate to all the lower parts of the earth." But the hell of the lost is computed among the lower parts of the earth according to Ps. 62:10: "They shall go into the lower parts of the earth." Therefore Christ who is the Wisdom of God, went down even into the hell of the lost. Objection 2: Further, Peter says (Acts 2:24) that "God hath raised up Christ, …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Another Shorter Evening Prayer.
O eternal God and heavenly Father, if I were not taught and assured by the promises of thy gospel, and the examples of Peter, Mary Magdalene, the publican, the prodigal child, and many other penitent sinners, that thou art so full of compassion, and so ready to forgive the greatest sinners, who are heaviest laden with sin, at what time soever they return unto thee with penitent hearts, lamenting their sins, and imploring thy grace, I should despair for mine own sins, and be utterly discouraged from …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Job
The book of Job is one of the great masterpieces of the world's literature, if not indeed the greatest. The author was a man of superb literary genius, and of rich, daring, and original mind. The problem with which he deals is one of inexhaustible interest, and his treatment of it is everywhere characterized by a psychological insight, an intellectual courage, and a fertility and brilliance of resource which are nothing less than astonishing. Opinion has been divided as to how the book should be …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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