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My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me. Surely there are mockers with me, and mine eye abideth in their provocation. Give now a pledge, be surety for me with Thyself; who else is there that will strike hands with me? For Thou hast hid their heart from understanding; therefore shalt Thou not exalt them. He that denounceth his friends for the sake of flattery, even the eyes of his children shall fail. He hath made me also a byword of the people; and I am become one in whose face they spit. Mine eye also is dimmed by reason of vexation, and all my members are as a shadow. Upright men are astonished at this, and the innocent stirreth up himself against the godless. Yet the righteous holdeth on his way, and he that hath clean hands waxeth stronger and stronger. 10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now; and I shall not find a wise man among you. 11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart. 12 They change the night into day; the light is short because of darkness. 13 If I look for the nether-world as my house; if I have spread my couch in the darkness; 14 If I have said to corruption: 'Thou art my father', to the worm: 'Thou art my mother, and my sister'; 15 Where then is my hope? And as for my hope, who shall see it? 16 They shall go down to the bars of the nether-world, when we are at rest together in the dust.