GOD'S WORD Translation GW
New King James Version NKJV
1 "My spirit is broken. My days have been snuffed out. The cemetery [is waiting] for me.
1
"My spirit is broken, My days are extinguished, The grave is ready for me.
2 Certainly, mockers are around me. My eyes are focused on their opposition.
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Are not mockers with me? And does not my eye dwell on their provocation?
3 Please guarantee my bail yourself. Who else will guarantee it with a handshake?
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"Now put down a pledge for me with Yourself. Who is he who will shake hands with me?
4 You have closed their minds so that they cannot understand. That is why you will not honor them.
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For You have hidden their heart from understanding; Therefore You will not exalt them.
5 (Whoever turns in friends to get their property should have his children's eyesight fail.)
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He who speaks flattery to his friends, Even the eyes of his children will fail.
6 "Now he has made me a laughingstock for many people. Now they spit in my face.
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"But He has made me a byword of the people, And I have become one in whose face men spit.
7 Now my eyes are blurred from grief. Now all my limbs are like a shadow.
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My eye has also grown dim because of sorrow, And all my members are like shadows.
8 Decent people are shocked by this, and it stirs up the innocent against godless people.
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Upright men are astonished at this, And the innocent stirs himself up against the hypocrite.
9 Yet, the righteous person clings to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.
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Yet the righteous will hold to his way, And he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger.
10 "But now, all of you, come and try again! I won't find one wise man among you.
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"But please, come back again, all of you, For I shall not find one wise man among you.
11 My days are passing by. My plans are broken. My dreams [are shattered].
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My days are past, My purposes are broken off, Even the thoughts of my heart.
12 You say that night is day. Light has nearly become darkness.
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They change the night into day; 'The light is near,' they say, in the face of darkness.
13 If I look for the grave as my home and make my bed in the darkness,
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If I wait for the grave as my house, If I make my bed in the darkness,
14 if I say to the pit, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'You are my mother and sister,'
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If I say to corruption, 'You are my father,' And to the worm, 'You are my mother and my sister,'
15 then where is my hope? Can you see any hope left in me?
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Where then is my hope? As for my hope, who can see it?
16 Will hope go down with me to the gates of the grave? Will my hope rest with me in the dust?"
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Will they go down to the gates of Sheol? Shall we have rest together in the dust?"