1  My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.

1  I perish, carried away by the wind, and I seek for burial, and obtain it not.

1  My spirit will be wasted, my days will be shortened, and only the grave will left for me.

2  Surely there are mockers with me, and mine eye abideth in their provocation.

2  Weary I intreat; and what have I done? and strangers have stolen my goods.

2  I have not sinned, yet my eye remains in bitterness.

3  Give now a pledge, be surety for me with Thyself; who else is there that will strike hands with me?

3  Who is this? let him join hands with me.

3  Free me, O Lord, and set me beside you, and let the hand of anyone you wish fight against me.

4  For Thou hast hid their heart from understanding; therefore shalt Thou not exalt them.

4  You have set their heart far from discipline; therefore, they will not be praised.

5  He that denounceth his friends for the sake of flattery, even the eyes of his children shall fail.

5  He shall promise mischief to his companions: but their eyes have failed for their children.

5  He promises prey to his companions, but the eyes of his sons will grow faint.

6  He hath made me also a byword of the people; and I am become one in whose face they spit.

6  But thou has made me a byword amoung the nations, and I am become a scorn to them.

6  He has granted power to the nations; I shall be derided before them.

7  Mine eye also is dimmed by reason of vexation, and all my members are as a shadow.

7  For my eyes are dimmed through pain; I have been grievously beset by all.

7  My eyesight has been clouded by indignation, and my limbs have been reduced, as if to nothing.

8  Upright men are astonished at this, and the innocent stirreth up himself against the godless.

8  Wonder has seized true men upon this; and let the just rise up against the transgressor.

9  Yet the righteous holdeth on his way, and he that hath clean hands waxeth stronger and stronger.

9  But let the faithful hold on his own way, and let him that is pure of hands take courage.

9  And the just will cling to his way, and clean hands will increase strength.

10  But as for you all, do ye return, and come now; and I shall not find a wise man among you.

10  Howbeit, do ye all strengthen yourselves and come now, for I do not find truth in you.

10  Therefore, be converted, all of you, and approach, for I do not find in you any wisdom.

11  My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.

11  My days have passed in groaning, and my heart-strings are broken.

11  O you time wasters! Dawdlers! Who think about nothing! O you destroyers of the hearts of the people!

12  They change the night into day; the light is short because of darkness.

12  They have turned night into day, and I hope for light again after the darkness.

12  You change the night into day; and you bring forth the light before the darkness is over.

13  If I look for the nether-world as my house; if I have spread my couch in the darkness;

13  For if I remain, Hades is my habitation: and my bed has been made in darkness.

14  If I have said to corruption: 'Thou art my father', to the worm: 'Thou art my mother, and my sister';

14  I have called upon death to be my father, and corruption to be my mother and sister.

14  I have said to decay and to worms: “You are my father, my mother, and my sister.”

15  Where then is my hope? And as for my hope, who shall see it?

15  Therefore, where is my expectation now, and who is it that considers my patience?

15  Where is now my hope and my trust? As for my hope, who shall find it?

16  They shall go down to the bars of the nether-world, when we are at rest together in the dust.

16  Will they go down with me to Hades, or shall we go down together to the tomb?

16  Everything of mine will descend into the deepest underworld; do you think that, in that place at least, there will be rest for me?