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¹ My spirit is broken, my days are cut short, the grave awaits me.

² Surely mockers surround me; my eyes must dwell on their hostility.

³ “Give me, O God, the pledge you demand. Who else will put up security for me?

⁴ You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore you will not let them triumph.

⁵ If anyone denounces their friends for reward, the eyes of their children will fail.

⁶ “God has made me a byword to everyone, a man in whose face people spit.

⁷ My eyes have grown dim with grief; my whole frame is but a shadow.

⁸ The upright are appalled at this; the innocent are aroused against the ungodly.

⁹ Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways, and those with clean hands will grow stronger.

¹⁰ “But come on, all of you, try again! I will not find a wise man among you.

¹¹ My days have passed, my plans are shattered. Yet the desires of my heart

¹² turn night into day; in the face of the darkness light is near.

¹³ If the only home I hope for is the grave, if I spread out my bed in the realm of darkness,

¹⁴ if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’

¹⁵ where then is my hope— who can see any hope for me? ¹⁶ Will it go down to the gates of death? Will we descend together into the dust?”