[1] “My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.
[2] Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.
[3] “Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?
[4] For you have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore you shall not exalt them.
[5] He who denounces his friends for plunder, Even the eyes of his children shall fail.
[6] “But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.
[7] My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.
[8] Upright men shall be astonished at this. The innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
[9] Yet shall the righteous hold on his way. He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
[10] But as for you all, come on now again; I shall not find a wise man among you.
[11] My days are past, my plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.
[12] They change the night into day, saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness.
[13] If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness,
[14] If I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father;’ to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘my sister;’
[15] where then is my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
[16] Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?”