| 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?' |