New Century Version NCV
The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
1 My spirit is broken; the days of my life are almost gone. The grave is waiting for me.
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"My spirit is broken, my days are quenched, I am marked for the grave.
2 Those who laugh at me surround me; I watch them insult me.
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Mockers are all around me; my eye meets only their hostility.
3 "God, make me a promise. No one will make a pledge for me.
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Be my guarantor, yourself! Who else will put up a pledge for me?
4 You have closed their minds to understanding. Do not let them win over me.
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For you have shut their minds to common sense; therefore you will not let them triumph.
5 A person might speak against his friends for money, but if he does, the eyes of his children go blind.
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Should people share with their friends when their own children's eyes are so sad?
6 "God has made my name a curse word; people spit in my face.
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"He has made me a byword among the peoples, a creature in whose face they spit.
7 My sight has grown weak because of my sadness, and my body is as thin as a shadow.
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I am nearly blind with grief, my limbs reduced to a shadow.
8 Honest people are upset about this; innocent people are upset with those who do wrong.
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The upright are perplexed at this, the innocent aroused against the hypocrites.
9 But those who do right will continue to do right, and those whose hands are not dirty with sin will grow stronger.
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Yet the righteous hold on to their way, and those with clean hands grow stronger and stronger.
10 "But, all of you, come and try again! I do not find a wise person among you.
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"But as for you all, turn around! Come back! -yet I won't find a wise man among you.
11 My days are gone, and my plans have been destroyed, along with the desires of my heart.
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My days are over, my plans cut off, which I had cherished so;
12 These men think night is day; when it is dark, they say, 'Light is near.'
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but they [try to] turn [my] night into day, [saying,] 'Light is near!'-in the face of darkness.
13 If the only home I hope for is the grave, if I spread out my bed in darkness,
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"If I hope for Sh'ol to be my house; if I spread my couch in the dark;
14 if I say to the grave, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'You are my mother' or 'You are my sister,'
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if I say to the pit, 'You are my father,'and to worms, 'You are my mother and sister,'
15 where, then, is my hope? Who can see any hope for me?
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then where is my hope? And that hope of mine, who will see it?
16 Will hope go down to the gates of death? Will we go down together into the dust?"
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Only those who go down with me to the bars of Sh'ol, when we rest together in the dust."
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.