King James Version KJV
The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
1 My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
1
"My spirit is broken, my days are quenched, I am marked for the grave.
2 Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
2
Mockers are all around me; my eye meets only their hostility.
3 Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?
3
Be my guarantor, yourself! Who else will put up a pledge for me?
4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
4
For you have shut their minds to common sense; therefore you will not let them triumph.
5 He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
5
Should people share with their friends when their own children's eyes are so sad?
6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
6
"He has made me a byword among the peoples, a creature in whose face they spit.
7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
7
I am nearly blind with grief, my limbs reduced to a shadow.
8 Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
8
The upright are perplexed at this, the innocent aroused against the hypocrites.
9 The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
9
Yet the righteous hold on to their way, and those with clean hands grow stronger and stronger.
10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
10
"But as for you all, turn around! Come back! -yet I won't find a wise man among you.
11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
11
My days are over, my plans cut off, which I had cherished so;
12 They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
12
but they [try to] turn [my] night into day, [saying,] 'Light is near!'-in the face of darkness.
13 If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
13
"If I hope for Sh'ol to be my house; if I spread my couch in the dark;
14 I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
14
if I say to the pit, 'You are my father,'and to worms, 'You are my mother and sister,'
15 And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
15
then where is my hope? And that hope of mine, who will see it?
16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
16
Only those who go down with me to the bars of Sh'ol, when we rest together in the dust."