1“My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
the graveyard is ready for me.
2Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their provocation.

3“Lay down a pledge for me with you;
who is there who will put up security for me?
4Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.
5He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
the eyes of his children will fail.

6“He has made me a byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom men spit.
7My eye has grown dim from vexation,
and all my members are like a shadow.
8The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
9Yet the righteous holds to his way,
and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
10But you, come on again, all of you,
and I shall not find a wise man among you.
11My days are past; my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.
12They make night into day:
‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’^a
13If I hope for Sheol as my house,
if I make my bed in darkness,
14if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
15where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?
16Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
Shall we descend together into the dust?”^b