1  “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;

the graveyard 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 you;

who is there who will put up security for me?

4  Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,

therefore you will 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  ^x“He has made me a byword of the peoples,

and I am one before whom men spit.

7  ^yMy eye has grown dim from vexation,

and all my members are like a shadow.

8  The upright are appalled at this,

and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.

9  Yet the righteous holds to his way,

and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.

10  ^zBut you, come on again, all of you,

and I shall not find a wise man among you.

11  ^aMy days are past; my plans are broken off,

the desires of my heart.

12  They make night into day:

‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’¹

13  If I hope for Sheol as my house,

if I ^bmake my bed in darkness,

14  if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’

and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ^c‘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 ^dinto the dust?”²