1 “My spirit has been destroyed, || My days extinguished—graves are for me. 2 If not—mockeries are with me. And my eye lodges in their provocations. 3 Now place my pledge with You; Who is he that strikes hand with me? 4 For You have hidden their heart from understanding, || Therefore You do not exalt them. 5 For a portion he shows friendship, || And the eyes of his sons are consumed. 6 And He set me up for a proverb of the peoples, || And I am a wonder before them. 7 And my eye is dim from sorrow, || And my members—all of them—as a shadow. 8 The upright are astonished at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the profane. 9 And the righteous lays hold on his way, || And the clean of hands adds strength. 10 But please return and come in, all of you, || And I do not find a wise man among you. 11 My days have passed by, || My plans have been broken off, || The possessions of my heart! 12 They appoint night for day, || Light is near because of darkness. 13 If I wait—Sheol is my house, || In darkness I have spread out my bed. 14 To corruption I have called: You are my father. To the worm: My mother and my sister. 15 And where is my hope now? Indeed, my hope, who beholds it? 16 You go down to the parts of Sheol, || If we may rest together on the dust.”