1“My spirit has been destroyed, My days extinguished—graves [are] for me.2If not—mockeries [are] with me. And my eye lodges in their provocations.3Now place my pledge with You; Who is he that strikes hand with me?4For You have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore You do not exalt them.5For a portion he shows friendship, And the eyes of his sons are consumed.6And He set me up for a proverb of the peoples, And I am a wonder before them.7And my eye is dim from sorrow, And my members—all of them—as a shadow.8The upright are astonished at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the profane.9And the righteous lays hold [on] his way, And the clean of hands adds strength.10But please return and come in, all of you, And I do not find a wise man among you.11My days have passed by, My plans have been broken off, The possessions of my heart!12They appoint night for day, Light [is] near because of darkness.13If I wait—Sheol [is] my house, In darkness I have spread out my bed.14To corruption I have called: You [are] my father. To the worm: My mother and my sister.15And where [is] my hope now? Indeed, my hope, who beholds it?16You go down [to] the parts of Sheol, If we may rest together on the dust.”
