[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 will not exalt them. [5] He who denounces his friends for plunder, even the eyes of his children will 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 will be astonished at this. The innocent will stir himself up against the godless. [9] Yet the righteous will hold to his way. He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger. [10] But as for you all, come back. I will 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,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’ [15] where then is my hope? As for my hope, who will see it? [16] Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?”
