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v1
“My spirit is pulled down; my days are extinguished; the graveyard is for me.
v2
Surely ^[Literally “If not”] mockery is with me, and my eye rests ^[Literally “spends the night”] on their provocation.
v3
Please lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who is he who will give security for my hand? ^[Or “who will give security for me?“]
v4
Indeed, ^[Or “For”] you have closed their mind from understanding; therefore, you will not let them triumph.
v5
He denounces friends for reward, so ^[Hebrew “and”] his children’s eyes will fail.
v6
“And he has made me a proverb for ^[Hebrew “of”] the peoples, and I am one before whom people spit. ^[Literally “and spitting to the faces I am”]
v7
And my eye has grown dim from grief, and the limbs of my body are all ^[Hebrew “all of them”] like a shadow.
v8
The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent excites himself over the godless.
v9
But ^[Hebrew “And”] the righteous holds on to his way, and he who has clean hands ^[Literally “the clean of hands”] increases in strength.
v10
But ^[Literally “And but”] all of you must return ^[Literally “all of them you must return”]—please come! ^[Literally “and please come,” or “come on!“] But ^[Hebrew “And”] I shall not find a wise person among you.
v11
“My days are past; my plans are broken down— even the desires of my heart.
v12
They make night into day, saying, ‘Light is near to darkness.’ ^[Literally “near from the faces of darkness”]
v13
If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in the darkness,
v14
if I call to the pit, ‘You are my father,’ to the maggot, ‘You are my mother or ^[Or “and”] my sister,‘
v15
where ^[Hebrew “and where”] then is my hope? And who will see my hope? ^[Literally “my hope who will see it”]
v16
Will they go down to the bars of Sheol? Or shall we descend together into the dust?”