King James Version KJV
Good News Translation GNT
1 My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
1
The end of my life is near. I can hardly breathe; there is nothing left for me but the grave.
2 Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
2
I watch how bitterly everyone mocks me.
3 Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?
3
I am being honest, God. Accept my word. There is no one else to support what I say.
4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
4
You have closed their minds to reason; don't let them triumph over me now.
5 He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
5
In the old proverb someone betrays his friends for money, and his children suffer for it.
6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
6
And now people use this proverb against me; they come and spit in my face.
7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
7
My grief has almost made me blind; my arms and legs are as thin as shadows.
8 Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
8
Those who claim to be honest are shocked, and they all condemn me as godless.
9 The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
9
Those who claim to be respectable are more and more convinced they are right.
10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
10
But if all of them came and stood before me, I would not find even one of them wise.
11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
11
My days have passed; my plans have failed; my hope is gone.
12 They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
12
But my friends say night is daylight; they say that light is near, but I know I remain in darkness.
13 If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
13
My only hope is the world of the dead, where I will lie down to sleep in the dark.
14 I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
14
I will call the grave my father, and the worms that eat me I will call my mother and my sisters.
15 And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
15
Where is there any hope for me? Who sees any?
16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
16
Hope will not go with me when I go down to the world of the dead.
The King James Version is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.