1 My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct,
the graves are ready for
me.
2 Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine
eye continue in their provocation?
3 Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will
strike hands with me?
4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore
shalt thou not exalt them.
5 He that speaketh flattery to his friends,
even the eyes of his children shall fail.
6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I
was as a tabret.
7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a
shadow.
8 Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the
innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
9 The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath
clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot
find one 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 wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the
darkness.
14 I have said to corruption, Thou art my
father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
15 And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall
see it?
16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest
together is in the
dust.
