Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 The end of my life is near. I can hardly breathe; there is nothing left for me but the grave.
1
"My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.
2 I watch how bitterly everyone mocks me.
2
Surely there are mockers with me, My eye dwells on their provocation.
3 I am being honest, God. Accept my word. There is no one else to support what I say.
3
"Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?
4 You have closed their minds to reason; don't let them triumph over me now.
4
For you have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore shall you not exalt them.
5 In the old proverb someone betrays his friends for money, and his children suffer for it.
5
He who denounces his friends for a prey, Even the eyes of his children shall fail.
6 And now people use this proverb against me; they come and spit in my face.
6
"But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.
7 My grief has almost made me blind; my arms and legs are as thin as shadows.
7
My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.
8 Those who claim to be honest are shocked, and they all condemn me as godless.
8
Upright men shall be astonished at this. The innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
9 Those who claim to be respectable are more and more convinced they are right.
9
Yet shall the righteous hold on his way. He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
10 But if all of them came and stood before me, I would not find even one of them wise.
10
But as for you all, come on now again; I shall not find a wise man among you.
11 My days have passed; my plans have failed; my hope is gone.
11
My days are past, my plans are broken off, As are the thoughts of my heart.
12 But my friends say night is daylight; they say that light is near, but I know I remain in darkness.
12
They change the night into day, Saying 'The light is near' in the presence of darkness.
13 My only hope is the world of the dead, where I will lie down to sleep in the dark.
13
If I look for Sheol as my house, If I have spread my couch in the darkness,
14 I will call the grave my father, and the worms that eat me I will call my mother and my sisters.
14
If I have said to corruption, 'You are my father;' To the worm, 'My mother,' and 'my sister;'
15 Where is there any hope for me? Who sees any?
15
Where then is my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it?
16 Hope will not go with me when I go down to the world of the dead.
16
Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, Or descend together into the dust?"
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.