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.
