1My spirit is consumed, and my days are over;
the grave is ready for me.

2Surely there are mockers with me;
my eye must always see their provocation.

3Give now a pledge, be a guarantee for me with yourself;
who else is there who will help me?

4For you, God, have kept their hearts from understanding;
therefore, you will not exalt them over me.

5He who denounces his friends for a reward,
the eyes of his children will fail.

6But he has made me a byword of the people;
they spit in my face.

7My eye is also dim because of sorrow;
all my body parts are as thin as shadows.

8Upright men will be stunned by this;
the innocent man will stir himself up against godless men.

9The righteous man will keep to his way;
he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.

10But as for you all, come on now;
I will not find a wise man among you.

11My days are past; my plans are shattered,
and so are the desires of my heart. ²

12These people, these mockers, change the night into day;
light is near to darkness.

13If the only home I hope for is Sheol;
and if I have spread my couch in the darkness;

14and if I have said to the pit, 'You are my father,'
and to the worm, 'You are my mother or my sister,'

15where then is my hope?
As for my hope, who can see any?

16Will hope go down with me to the gates of Sheol
when we descend to the dust?”