[1] My spirit is broken, my days are spent (snuffed out); the grave is ready for me. [2] Surely there are mockers and mockery around me, and my eye dwells on their obstinacy, insults, and resistance. [3] Give me a pledge with Yourself [acknowledge my innocence before my death]; who is there that will give security for me? [4] But their hearts [Lord] You have closed to understanding; therefore You will not let them triumph [by giving them a verdict against me]. [5] He who denounces his friends [in order to make them] a prey and get a share, the eyes of his children shall fail [to find food]. [6] But He has made me a byword among the people, and they spit before my face. [7] My eye has grown dim because of grief, and all my members are [wasted away] like a shadow. [8] Upright men shall be astonished and appalled at this, and the innocent shall stir himself up against the godless and polluted. [9] Yet shall the righteous (those upright and in right standing with God) hold to their ways, and he who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger. [10] But as for you, come on again, all of you, though I find not a wise man among you. [11] My days are past, my purposes and plans are frustrated; even the thoughts (desires and possessions) of my heart [are broken off]. [12] These [thoughts] extend from the night into the day, [so that] the light is short because of darkness. [13] But if I look to Sheol (the unseen state) as my abode, if I spread my couch in the darkness, [14] If I say to the grave and corruption, You are my father, and to the worm [that feeds on decay], You are my mother and my sister [because I will soon be closest to you], [15] Where then is my hope? And if I have hope, who will see [its fulfillment]? [16] [My hope] shall go down to the bars of Sheol (the unseen state) when once there is rest in the dust.
