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 shall you 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?"
