[1] “My spirit has been destroyed, || My days extinguished—graves [are] for me. [2] If not—mockeries [are] with me. And my eye lodges in their provocations. [3] Now place my pledge with You; Who is he that strikes hand with me? [4] For You have hidden their heart from understanding, || Therefore You do not exalt them. [5] For a portion he shows friendship, || And the eyes of his sons are consumed. [6] And He set me up for a proverb of the peoples, || And I am a wonder before them. [7] And my eye is dim from sorrow, || And my members—all of them—as a shadow. [8] The upright are astonished at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the profane. [9] And the righteous lays hold [on] his way, || And the clean of hands adds strength. [10] But please return and come in, all of you, || And I do not find a wise man among you. [11] My days have passed by, || My plans have been broken off, || The possessions of my heart! [12] They appoint night for day, || Light [is] near because of darkness. [13] If I wait—Sheol [is] my house, || In darkness I have spread out my bed. [14] To corruption I have called: You [are] my father. To the worm: My mother and my sister. [15] And where [is] my hope now? Indeed, my hope, who beholds it? [16] You go down [to] the parts of Sheol, || If we may rest together on the dust.”
