- 1
“My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct and the grave is ready for me.
- 2
Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.
- 3
“Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?
- 4
For you have hidden their heart from understanding, therefore you will not exalt them.
- 5
He who denounces his friends for plunder, even the eyes of his children will fail.
- 6
“But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.
- 7
My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.
- 8
Upright men will be astonished at this. The innocent will stir himself up against the godless.
- 9
Yet the righteous will hold to his way. He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
- 10
But as for you all, come back. I will not find a wise man among you.
- 11
My days are past. My plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.
- 12
They change the night into day, saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness.
- 13
If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness,
- 14
if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’
- 15
where then is my hope? As for my hope, who will see it?
- 16
Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?”
Bible: World English Bible (Catholic), public domain, via eBible.org. Footnotes, section headings and acrostic letters are not reproduced.