| 1 ¶ My breath1 is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
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| 2 Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue2 in their provocation?
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| 3 Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?
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| 4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
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| 5 He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
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| 6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime3 I was as a tabret.
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| 7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members4 are as a shadow.
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| 8 Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
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| 9 The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be5 stronger and stronger.
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| 10 ¶ But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
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| 11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts6 of my heart.
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| 12 They change the night into day: the light is short7 because of darkness.
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| 13 If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
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| 14 I have said8 to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
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| 15 And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
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| 16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
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