| 1 | My spirit is broken, my days are spent (snuffed out); the grave is ready for me. |
| 2 | Surely there are mockers
and
mockery around me, and my eye dwells on their obstinacy, insults,
and
resistance. |
| 3 | Give me a pledge with Yourself [acknowledge my innocence before my death]; who is there that will give security for me? |
| 4 | But their hearts [Lord] You have closed to understanding; therefore You will not let them triumph [by giving them a verdict against me]. |
| 5 | He who denounces his friends [in order to make them] a prey
and
get a share, the eyes of his children shall fail [to find food]. |
| 6 | But He has made me a byword among the people, and they spit before my face. |
| 7 | My eye has grown dim because of grief, and all my members are [wasted away] like a shadow. |
| 8 | Upright men shall be astonished
and
appalled at this, and the innocent shall stir himself up against the godless
and
polluted. |
| 9 | Yet shall the righteous (those upright and in right standing with God) hold to their ways, and he who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger. |
| 10 | But as for you, come on again, all of you, though I find not a wise man among you. |
| 11 | My days are past, my purposes
and
plans are frustrated; even the thoughts (desires and possessions) of my heart [are broken off]. |
| 12 | These [thoughts] extend from the night into the day, [so that] the light is short because of darkness. |
| 13 | But if I look to Sheol (the unseen state) as my abode, if I spread my couch in the darkness, |
| 14 | If I say to the grave
and
corruption, You are my father, and to the worm [that feeds on decay], You are my mother and my sister [because I will soon be closest to you], |
| 15 | Where then is my hope? And if I have hope, who will see [its fulfillment]? |
| 16 | [My hope] shall go down to the bars of Sheol (the unseen state) when once there is rest in the dust. |
Cross references:
-
Job 17:9 : Ps. 24:4.
|