| 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 a prey, 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?" |
