[1] “My spirit is broken, My days are extinguished, The grave is ready for me.
[2] Are not mockers with me? And does not my eye dwell on their provocation?
[3] “Now put down a pledge for me with Yourself. Who is he who will shake hands with me?
[4] For You have hidden their heart from understanding; Therefore You will not exalt them.
[5] He who speaks flattery to his friends, Even the eyes of his children will fail.
[6] “But He has made me a byword of the people, And I have become one in whose face men spit.
[7] My eye has also grown dim because of sorrow, And all my members are like shadows.
[8] Upright men are astonished at this, And the innocent stirs himself up against the hypocrite.
[9] Yet the righteous will hold to his way, And he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger.
[10] “But please, come back again, all of you, For I shall not find one wise man among you.
[11] My days are past, My purposes are broken off, Even the thoughts of my heart.
[12] They change the night into day; ‘The light is near,’ they say, in the face of darkness.
[13] If I wait for the grave as my house, If I make my bed in the darkness,
[14] If I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ And to the worm, ‘You are my mother and my sister,’
[15] Where then is my hope? As for my hope, who can see it?
[16] Will they go down to the gates of Sheol? Shall we have rest together in the dust?”