1"My spirit is spent, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.
2Are there not mockers with me? And doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
3"Lay it down now, give me a surety with Thee. Who is he that will strike hands with me?
4For Thou hast hid their heart from understanding; therefore shalt Thou not exalt them.
5He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
6"He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a drum to beat on.
7Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
8Upright men shall be astonished at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
9The righteous also shall hold to his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
10"But as for you all, do ye return and come now, for I cannot find one wise man among you.
11My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
12They change the night into day; the light is short because of darkness.
13If I wait, the grave is mine house; I have made my bed in the darkness.
14I have said to corruption, `Thou art my father'; to the worm, `Thou art my mother and my sister.'
15And where is now my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it?
16It shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust."