1 My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers about me, and my eye dwells on their provocation.
3 "Lay down a pledge for me with thyself; who is there that will give surety for me?
4 Since thou hast closed their minds to understanding, therefore thou wilt not let them triumph.
5 He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property, the eyes of his children will fail.
6 "He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit.
7 My eye has grown dim from grief, and all my members are like a shadow.
8 Upright men are appalled at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
9 Yet the righteous holds to his way, and he that has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
10 But you, come on again, all of you, and I shall not find a wise man among you.
11 My days are past, my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart.
12 They make night into day; `he light,' they say, "is near to the darkness.'
13 If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness,
14 if I say to the pit, `You are my father,' and to the worm, `My mother,' or `My sister,'
15 where then is my hope? Who will see my hope?
16 Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?"