The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 "My spirit is broken, my days are quenched, I am marked for the grave.
1
My spirit is broken, my days are ended, the last resting-place is ready for me.
2 Mockers are all around me; my eye meets only their hostility.
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Truly, those who make sport of me are round about me, and my eyes become dark because of their bitter laughing.
3 Be my guarantor, yourself! Who else will put up a pledge for me?
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Be pleased, now, to be responsible for me to yourself; for there is no other who will put his hand in mine.
4 For you have shut their minds to common sense; therefore you will not let them triumph.
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You have kept their hearts from wisdom: for this cause you will not give them honour.
5 Should people share with their friends when their own children's eyes are so sad?
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As for him who is false to his friend for a reward, light will be cut off from the eyes of his children.
6 "He has made me a byword among the peoples, a creature in whose face they spit.
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He has made me a word of shame to the peoples; I have become a mark for their sport.
7 I am nearly blind with grief, my limbs reduced to a shadow.
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My eyes have become dark because of my pain, and all my body is wasted to a shade.
8 The upright are perplexed at this, the innocent aroused against the hypocrites.
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The upright are surprised at this, and he who has done no wrong is troubled because of the evil-doers.
9 Yet the righteous hold on to their way, and those with clean hands grow stronger and stronger.
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Still the upright keeps on his way, and he who has clean hands gets new strength.
10 "But as for you all, turn around! Come back! -yet I won't find a wise man among you.
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But come back, now, all of you, come; and I will not see a wise man among you.
11 My days are over, my plans cut off, which I had cherished so;
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My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the desires of my heart.
12 but they [try to] turn [my] night into day, [saying,] 'Light is near!'-in the face of darkness.
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They are changing night into day; they say, The light is near the dark.
13 "If I hope for Sh'ol to be my house; if I spread my couch in the dark;
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If I am waiting for the underworld as my house, if I have made my bed in the dark;
14 if I say to the pit, 'You are my father,'and to worms, 'You are my mother and sister,'
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If I say to the earth, You are my father; and to the worm, My mother and my sister;
15 then where is my hope? And that hope of mine, who will see it?
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Where then is my hope? and who will see my desire?
16 Only those who go down with me to the bars of Sh'ol, when we rest together in the dust."
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Will they go down with me into the underworld? Will we go down together into the dust?
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.