1 “ My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished, The grave is ready for me.

My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are mine.

2 “ Surely mockers are with me, And my eye gazes on their provocation.

Are there not mockers around me? and doth mine eye abide in their provocation?

3 “ Lay down, now, a pledge for me with Yourself; Who is there that will be my guarantor?

Lay down now, be thou surety for me with thyself: who is he that striketh hands with me?

4 “ For You have kept their heart from understanding, Therefore You will not exalt them.

For thou hast hidden their heart from understanding; therefore thou wilt not exalt.

5 “ He who informs against friends for a share of the spoil, The eyes of his children also will languish.

He that betrayeth friends for a prey—even the eyes of his children shall fail.

6 “ But He has made me a byword of the people, And I am one at whom men spit.

And he hath made me a proverb of the peoples; and I am become one to be spit on in the face.

7 “ My eye has also grown dim because of grief, And all my members are as a shadow.

And mine eye is dim by reason of grief, and all my members are as a shadow.

8 “ The upright will be appalled at this, And the innocent will stir up himself against the godless.

Upright men astonished at this, and the innocent shall be stirred up against the ungodly;

9 “ Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his way, And he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.

But the righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall increase in strength.

10 “ But come again all of you now, For I do not find a wise man among you.

But as for you all, pray come on again; and I shall not find one wise man among you.

11 “ My days are past, my plans are torn apart, Even the wishes of my heart.

My days are past, my purposes are broken off, the cherished thoughts of my heart.

12 “ They make night into day, saying, ‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.

They change the night into day; the light near in presence of the darkness.

13 “ If I look for Sheol as my home, I make my bed in the darkness;

If I wait, Sheol is my house; I spread my bed in the darkness:

14 I f I call to the pit, ‘You are my father’; To the worm, ‘my mother and my sister’;

I cry to the grave, Thou art my father! to the worm, My mother, and my sister!

15 W here now is my hope? And who regards my hope?

And where is then my hope? yea, my hope, who shall see it?

16 “ Will it go down with me to Sheol? Shall we together go down into the dust?”

It shall go down to the bars of Sheol, when rest shall be together in the dust.