3“Now put down a pledge for me with Yourself.
Who is he who will shake hands with me?
4For You have hidden their heart from understanding;
Therefore You will not exalt them.
5He who speaks flattery to his friends,
Even the eyes of his children will fail.

6“But He has made me a byword of the people,
And I have become one in whose face men spit.
7My eye has also grown dim because of sorrow,
And all my members are like shadows.
8Upright men are astonished at this,
And the innocent stirs himself up against the hypocrite.
9Yet the righteous will hold to his way,
And he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger.

10“But please, come back again, [b]all of you,
For I shall not find one wise man among you.
11My days are past,
My purposes are broken off,
Even the [c]thoughts of my heart.
12They change the night into day;
‘The light is near,’ they say, in the face of darkness.
13If I wait for the grave as my house,
If I make my bed in the darkness,
14If I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’
And to the worm, ‘You are my mother and my sister,’
15Where then is my hope?
As for my hope, who can see it?
16Will they go down to the gates of [d]Sheol?
Shall we have rest together in the dust?”