- 1
- My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.
- 2
- Surely there are mockers with me, and mine eye abideth in their provocation.
- 3
- Give now a pledge, be surety for me with Thyself;
who else is there that will strike hands with me?
- 4
- For Thou hast hid their heart from understanding;
therefore shalt Thou not exalt them.
- 5
- He that denounceth his friends for the sake of flattery, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
- 6
- He hath made me also a byword of the people;
and I am become one in whose face they spit.
- 7
- Mine eye also is dimmed by reason of vexation, and all my members are as a shadow.
- 8
- Upright men are astonished at this, and the innocent stirreth up himself against the godless.
- 9
- Yet the righteous holdeth on his way, and he that hath clean hands waxeth stronger and stronger.
- 10
- But as for you all, do ye return, and come now;
and I shall not find a wise man among you.
- 11
- My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
- 12
- They change the night into day;
the light is short because of darkness.
- 13
- If I look for the nether-world as my house;
if I have spread my couch in the darkness;
- 14
- If I have said to corruption: "Thou art my father", to the worm: "Thou art my mother, and my sister";
- 15
- Where then is my hope?
And as for my hope, who shall see it?
- 16
- They shall go down to the bars of the nether-world, when we are at rest together in the dust.
|