1 My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, The grave is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers with me, And mine eye dwelleth upon their provocation.
3 Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself ; Who is there that will strike hands with me ?
4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding : Therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
5 He that denounceth his friends for a prey, Even the eyes of his children shall fail.
6 But he hath made me a byword of the people ; And they spit in my face.
7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, And all my members are as a shadow.
8 Upright men shall be astonished at this, And the innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
9 Yet shall the righteous hold on his way, And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.
10 But as for you all, come on now again ; And I shall not find a wise man among you.
11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, Even the thoughts of my heart.
12 They change the night into day : The light, say they, is near unto the 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, Thou art my father ; To the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister ;
15 Where then is my hope ? And as for my hope, who shall see it ?
16 It shall go down to the bars of Sheol, When once there is rest in the dust.