1 "My spirit is pulled down; my days are extinguished; [the] graveyard [is] for me.
2 {Surely} mockery [is] with me, and my eye {rests} on their provocation.
3 Please lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who [is] he [who] will give security for my hand?
4 Indeed, you have closed their mind from understanding; therefore, you will not let [them] triumph.
5 He denounces friends for reward, so his children's eyes will fail.
6 "And he has made me a proverb for [the] peoples, {and I am one before whom people spit}.
7 And my eye has grown dim from grief, and the limbs of my body [are] all like a shadow.
8 [The] upright are appalled at this, and [the] innocent excites himself over [the] godless.
9 But [the] righteous holds on to his way, and {he who has clean hands} increases in strength.
10 But {all of you must return}--{please come}! But I shall not find a wise [person] among you.
11 "My days are past; my plans are broken down-- [even] the desires of my heart.
12 They make night into day, [saying], 'Light [is] {near to darkness}.'
13 If I hope [for] Sheol [as] my house, [if] I spread my couch in the darkness,
14 [if] I call to the pit, 'You [are] my father,' to the maggot, '[You are] my mother or my sister,'
15 where then [is] my hope? And {who will see my hope}?
16 Will they go down [to] the bars of Sheol? Or shall we descend together into the dust?"