1 My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.2 Surely there are mockers around me, and my eye dwells on their provocation.3 "Lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who is there that will give surety for me?4 Since you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph.5 Those who denounce friends for reward-- the eyes of their children will fail.6 "He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom people spit.7 My eye has grown dim from grief, and all my members are like a shadow.8 The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stir themselves up against the godless.9 Yet the righteous hold to their way, and they that have clean hands grow stronger and stronger.10 But you, come back now, all of you, and I shall not find a sensible person among you.11 My days are past, my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart.12 They make night into day; 'The light,' they say, 'is near to the darkness.'13 If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness,14 if I say to the Pit, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My mother,' or 'My sister,'15 where then is my hope? Who will see my hope?16 Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?"