The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
King James Version KJV
1 "My spirit is broken, my days are quenched, I am marked for the grave.
1
My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
2 Mockers are all around me; my eye meets only their hostility.
2
Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
3 Be my guarantor, yourself! Who else will put up a pledge for me?
3
Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?
4 For you have shut their minds to common sense; therefore you will not let them triumph.
4
For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
5 Should people share with their friends when their own children's eyes are so sad?
5
He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
6 "He has made me a byword among the peoples, a creature in whose face they spit.
6
He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
7 I am nearly blind with grief, my limbs reduced to a shadow.
7
Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
8 The upright are perplexed at this, the innocent aroused against the hypocrites.
8
Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
9 Yet the righteous hold on to their way, and those with clean hands grow stronger and stronger.
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, turn around! Come back! -yet I won't find a wise man among you.
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 over, my plans cut off, which I had cherished so;
11
My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
12 but they [try to] turn [my] night into day, [saying,] 'Light is near!'-in the face of darkness.
12
They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
13 "If I hope for Sh'ol to be my house; if I spread my couch in the dark;
13
If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
14 if I say to the pit, 'You are my father,'and to worms, 'You are my mother and sister,'
14
I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
15 then where is my hope? And that hope of mine, who will see it?
15
And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
16 Only those who go down with me to the bars of Sh'ol, when we rest together in the dust."
16
They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in 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 King James Version is in the public domain.