1 My breath is corrupt: my dayes are cut off, and the graue is readie for me. 2 There are none but mockers with mee, and mine eye continueth in their bitternesse. 3 Lay downe nowe and put me in suretie for thee: who is hee, that will touch mine hand? 4 For thou hast hid their heart from vnderstanding: therefore shalt thou not set them vp on hie. 5 For the eyes of his children shall faile, that speaketh flattery to his friends. 6 Hee hath also made mee a byword of the people, and I am as a Tabret before them. 7 Mine eye therefore is dimme for griefe, and all my strength is like a shadowe. 8 The righteous shalbe astonied at this, and the innocent shalbe moued against ye hypocrite. 9 But the righteous wil holde his way, and he whose hands are pure, shall increase his strength. 10 All you therefore turne you, and come nowe, and I shall not finde one wise among you. 11 My dayes are past, mine enterprises are broken, and the thoughts of mine heart 12 Haue changed the nyght for the day, and the light that approched, for darkenesse. 13 Though I hope, yet the graue shall bee mine house, and I shall make my bed in the darke. 14 I shall say to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worme, Thou art my mother and my sister. 15 Where is then now mine hope? or who shall consider the thing, that I hoped for? 16 They shall goe downe into the bottome of the pit: surely it shall lye together in the dust.
1 The end of my life is near. I can hardly breathe;
there is nothing left for me but the grave.
2 I watch how bitterly everyone mocks me.
3 I am being honest, God. Accept my word.
There is no one else to support what I say.
4 You have closed their minds to reason;
don't let them triumph over me now.
5 In the old proverb someone betrays his friends for money,
and his children suffer for it.
6 And now people use this proverb against me;
they come and spit in my face.
7 My grief has almost made me blind;
my arms and legs are as thin as shadows.
8 Those who claim to be honest are shocked,
and they all condemn me as godless.
9 Those who claim to be respectable
are more and more convinced they are right.
10 But if all of them came and stood before me,
I would not find even one of them wise.
11 My days have passed; my plans have failed;
my hope is gone.
12 But my friends say night is daylight;
they say that light is near,
but I know I remain in darkness.
13 My only hope is the world of the dead,
where I will lie down to sleep in the dark.
14 I will call the grave my father,
and the worms that eat me
I will call my mother and my sisters.
15 Where is there any hope for me?
Who sees any?
16 Hope will not go with me
when I go down to the world of the dead.