[1] My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, The grave is ready for me. [2] Surely there are mockers with me, And mine eye dwelleth upon their provocation. [3] Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself; Who is there that will strike hands with me? [4] For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: Therefore shalt thou not exalt them. [5] He that denounceth his friends for a prey, Even the eyes of his children shall fail. [6] But he hath made me a byword of the people; And they spit in my face. [7] Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, And all my members are as a shadow. [8] Upright men shall be astonished at this, And the innocent shall stir up himself against the godless. [9] Yet shall the righteous hold on his way, And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger. [10] But as for you all, come on now again; And I shall not find a wise man among you. [11] My days are past, my purposes are broken off, Even the thoughts of my heart. [12] They change the night into day: The light, say they, is near unto the 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, Thou art my father; To the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister; [15] Where then is my hope? And as for my hope, who shall see it? [16] It shall go down to the bars of Sheol, When once there is rest in the dust.
