[1] My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.
[2] Surely there are mockers with me, and mine eye abideth in their provocation.
[3] Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself; who is there that will strike hands with me?
[4] For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
[5] He that denounceth his friends for a prey, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
[6] He hath made me also a byword of the people; and I am become an open abhorring.
[7] Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
[8] Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
[9] Yet shall the righteous hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.
[10] But return ye, all of you, and come now: and I shall not find a wise man among you.
[11] My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the droughts of my heart.
[12] They change the night into a day: the fight, say they, is near unto the darkness.
[13] If I look for Sheol as mine house; if I have spread my couch in the darkness;
[14] If I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister;
[15] Where then is my hope? and as for my hope, who shall see it?
[16] It shall go down to the bars of Sheol, when once there is rest in the dust.