17
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.