1My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct,

The grave is ready for me.

2Surely there are mockers with me,

And mine eye abideth in their provocation.

3Give now a pledge, be surety for me with Thyself;

Who else is there that will strike hands with me?

4For Thou hast hid their heart from understanding;

Therefore shalt Thou not exalt them.

5He that denounceth his friends for the sake of flattery,

Even the eyes of his children shall fail.

6He hath made me also a byword of the people;

And I am become one in whose face they spit.

7Mine eye also is dimmed by reason of vexation,

And all my members are as a shadow.

8Upright men are astonished at this,

And the innocent stirreth up himself against the godless.

9Yet the righteous holdeth on his way,

And he that hath clean hands waxeth stronger and stronger.

10But as for you all, do ye return, and come now;

And I shall not find a 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 look for the nether-world as my house;

If I have spread my couch in the darkness;

14If I have said to corruption: ‘Thou art my father’,

To the worm: ‘Thou art my mother, and my sister’;

15Where then is my hope?

And as for my hope, who shall see it?

16They shall go down to the bars of the nether-world,

When we are at rest together in the dust.