Job 17:3

Make then my pledge ¹  with you. Who else will put up security for me? ² 

"Give me, O God, the pledge you demand. Who else will put up security for me?

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

"You must defend my innocence, O God, since no one else will stand up for me.

"O God, pledge your support for me. Give it to me in writing, with your signature. You're the only one who can do it!

Be pleased, now, to be responsible for me to yourself; for there is no other who will put his hand in mine.

"Lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who is there that will give surety for me?

"Now put down a pledge for me with Yourself. Who is he who will shake hands with me?

Make then my pledge ¹  with you. Who else will put up security for me? ² 

¹ tn The MT has two imperatives: “Lay down, pledge me, with me.” Most commentators think that the second imperative should be a noun, and take it to say, “Lay my pledge with/beside you.” A. B. Davidson (Job, 126) suggests that the first verb means “give a pledge,” and so the two similar verbs would be emphatic: “Give a pledge, be my surety.” Other than such a change (which would involve changing the vowels) one would have to interpret similarly by seeing the imperatives as a kind of hendiadys, with the main emphasis being on the second imperative, “make a pledge.”

² sn The idiom is “to strike the hand.” Here the wording is a little different, “Who is he that will strike himself into my hand?”