| Berean Study Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1“My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me. | 1“My spirit is crushed, and my life is nearly snuffed out. The grave is ready to receive me. |
| 2Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion. | 2I am surrounded by mockers. I watch how bitterly they taunt me. |
| 3Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand. Who else will be my guarantor? | 3“You must defend my innocence, O God, since no one else will stand up for me. |
| 4You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them. | 4You have closed their minds to understanding, but do not let them triumph. |
| 5If a man denounces his friends for a price, the eyes of his children will fail. | 5They betray their friends for their own advantage, so let their children faint with hunger. |
| 6He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit. | 6“God has made a mockery of me among the people; they spit in my face. |
| 7My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow. | 7My eyes are swollen with weeping, and I am but a shadow of my former self. |
| 8The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent are stirred against the godless. | 8The virtuous are horrified when they see me. The innocent rise up against the ungodly. |
| 9Yet a righteous one holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger. | 9The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger. |
| 10But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you. | 10“As for all of you, come back with a better argument, though I still won’t find a wise man among you. |
| 11My days have passed; my plans are broken off—even the desires of my heart. | 11My days are over. My hopes have disappeared. My heart’s desires are broken. |
| 12They have turned night into day, making light seem near in the face of darkness. | 12These men say that night is day; they claim that the darkness is light. |
| 13If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness, | 13What if I go to the grave and make my bed in darkness? |
| 14and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’ | 14What if I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister? |
| 15where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me? | 15Where then is my hope? Can anyone find it? |
| 16Will it go down to the gates of Sheol? Will we go down together into the dust?” | 16No, my hope will go down with me to the grave. We will rest together in the dust!” |
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