1“My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished;
the grave awaits me.
1“ My spirit is destroyed, my days are extinguished—graves are for me.
2Surely mockers surround me,
and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.
2If not, mockers are with me, and in their provocation my eye lodges.
3Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand.
Who else will be my guarantor?
3Place, please, my pledge with You; who is he who will strike himself to my hand?
4You have closed their minds to understanding;
therefore You will not exalt them.
4For You have hidden their heart from understanding, and upon thus You will not exalt them.
5If a man denounces his friends for a price,
the eyes of his children will fail.
5He reports his friends for a portion, and the eyes of his sons are consumed.
6He has made me a byword among the people,
a man in whose face they spit.
6And He has made me a byword among the peoples, and a spitting in the face I have become.
7My eyes have grown dim with grief,
and my whole body is but a shadow.
7And my eye is dim from sorrow, and my members are like a shadow, all of them.
8The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent are stirred against the godless.
8The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent rouses himself against the godless.
9Yet a righteous one holds to his way,
and the one with clean hands grows stronger.
9Yet the righteous shall hold to his way, and the one clean of hands shall add strength.
10But come back and try again, all of you.
For I will not find a wise man among you.
10But all of them, you should return and come in, please! And I shall not find a wise one among you.
11My days have passed; my plans are broken off—
even the desires of my heart.
11My days have passed by, my plans are pulled out—the possessions of my heart.
12They have turned night into day,
making light seem near in the face of darkness.
12They set the night into day: ‘Light is near in the face of darkness.’
13If I look for Sheol as my home,
if I spread out my bed in darkness,
13If I await Sheol as my house, if in the darkness I spread out my bed,
14and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
14if to the Pit I call out, ‘You are My father,’ or to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister’—
15where then is my hope?
Who can see any hope for me?
15where, then, is my hope? And my hope, who can see it?
16Will it go down to the gates of Sheol?
Will we go down together into the dust?”
16Will it go down into the hands of Sheol, if we may rest together upon the dust?”