17 My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct,

The grave is ready for me.

2Surely there are mockers with me,

And mine eye dwelleth upon their provocation.

3Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself;

Who is there that will strike hands with me?

4For thou hast hid their heart from understanding:

Therefore shalt thou not exalt them.

5He that denounceth his friends for a prey,

Even the eyes of his children shall fail.

6But he hath made me a byword of the people;

And they spit in my face.

7Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow,

And all my members are as a shadow.

8Upright men shall be astonished at this,

And the innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.

9Yet shall the righteous hold on his way,

And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.

10But as for you all, come on now again;

And I shall not find a wise man among you.

11My days are past, my purposes are broken off,

Even the thoughts of my heart.

12They change the night into day:

The light, say they, is near unto the darkness.

13If I look for Sheol as my house;

If I have spread my couch in the darkness;

14If I have said to corruption, Thou art my father;

To the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister;

15Where then is my hope?

And as for my hope, who shall see it?

16It shall go down to the bars of Sheol,

When once there is rest in the dust.