1“My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished,

The [a]grave is ready for me.

2“Mockers are certainly with me,

And my eye [b]gazes on their provocation.

3“Make a pledge for me with Yourself;

Who is there that will [c]be my guarantor?

4“For You have [d]kept their hearts away from understanding;

Therefore You will not exalt them.

5“He who informs against friends for a share of the spoils,

The eyes of his children also will perish.

6“But He has made me a proverb among the people,

And I am [e]one at whom people spit.

7“My eye has also become inexpressive because of grief,

And all my body parts are like a shadow.

8“The upright will be appalled at this,

And the innocent will stir himself up against the godless.

9“Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his way,

And the one who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.

10“But come again all of [f]you now,

For I do not find a wise man among you.

11“My days are past, my plans are torn apart,

The wishes of my heart.

12“They make night into day, saying,

‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.

13“If I hope for [g]Sheol as my home,

I [h]make my bed in the darkness;

14If I call to the grave, ‘You are my father’;

To the maggot, ‘my mother and my sister’;

15Where then is my hope?

And who looks at my hope?

16“[i]Will it go down with me to Sheol?

Shall we together go down into the dust?”