1 “My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me.
2 Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.
3 Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand. Who else will be my guarantor?
4 You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.
5 If a man denounces his friends for a price, the eyes of his children will fail.
6 He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.
7 My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow.
8 The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent are stirred against the godless.
9 Yet a righteous one holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.
10 But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you.
11 My days have passed; my plans are broken off—even the desires of my heart.
12 They have turned night into day, making light seem near in the face of darkness.
13 If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,
14 and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
15 where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me?
16 Will it go down to the gates of Sheol? Will we go down together into the dust?”