• 1 My spirit is broken, my days are cut short, the grave awaits me.
  • 2 Surely mockers surround me; my eyes must dwell on their hostility.
  • 3 “Give me, O God, the pledge you demand. Who else will put up security for me?
  • 4 You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore you will not let them triumph.
  • 5 If anyone denounces their friends for reward, the eyes of their children will fail.
  • 6 “God has made me a byword to everyone, a man in whose face people spit.
  • 7 My eyes have grown dim with grief; my whole frame is but a shadow.
  • 8 The upright are appalled at this; the innocent are aroused against the ungodly.
  • 9 Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways, and those with clean hands will grow stronger.
  • 10 “But come on, all of you, try again! I will not find a wise man among you.
  • 11 My days have passed, my plans are shattered. Yet the desires of my heart
  • 12 turn night into day; in the face of the darkness light is near.
  • 13 If the only home I hope for is the grave, if I spread out my bed in the realm of darkness,
  • 14 if I 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 death? Will we descend together into the dust?”