| International Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1"My spirit is crushed, my days are over; it's the grave for me! | 1My spirit is broken, my days have faded out, the grave awaits me. |
| 2Mockers surround me; I cannot stop staring at their hostility all through the night. | 2Surely mockery is with me; my eyes must dwell on their hostility. |
| 3Offer, then, some collateral on my behalf. Is there anyone who will be my guarantor? | 3Make then my pledge with you. Who else will put up security for me? |
| 4"Because you're the one who closed their hearts to compassion; therefore, you won't let them triumph. | 4Because you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not exalt them. |
| 5Now as for the one who testifies against his friends to take their property, even the eyes of his children will fail. | 5If a man denounces his friends for personal gain, the eyes of his children will fail. |
| 6"He has made me a byword among people; I'm being spit on in the face. | 6He has made me a byword to people, I am the one in whose face they spit. |
| 7My eyes have grown weak from grief; and my whole body is as thin as a shadow. | 7My eyes have grown dim with grief; my whole frame is but a shadow. |
| 8The upright are appalled over this, and the innocent person is troubled by the godless. | 8Upright men are appalled at this; the innocent man is troubled with the godless. |
| 9But the righteous person will hold to his way, and those with clean hands will grow stronger and stronger." | 9But the righteous man holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger. |
| 10"Come here now, all of you, and I won't find a wise person among you. | 10"But turn, all of you, and come now! I will not find a wise man among you. |
| 11My days are passed; my plans have been shattered; along with my heart's desires. | 11My days have passed, my plans are shattered, even the desires of my heart. |
| 12They have transformed night into day— 'The light,' they say, 'is about to become dark.' | 12These men change night into day; they say, 'The light is near in the face of darkness.' |
| 13"If my hope were that my house is the afterlife itself, if I were to make my bed in darkness, | 13If I hope for the grave to be my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness, |
| 14if I call out to the Pit, 'You're my father!' or say to the worm, 'My mother!' or 'My sister!' | 14If I cry to corruption, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My Mother,' or 'My sister,' |
| 15where would my hope be? "And speaking of my hope, who would notice it? | 15where then is my hope? And my hope, who sees it? |
| 16Will it go down to the bars that lock the doors of the afterlife? Will we descend together into the dust?" | 16Will it go down to the barred gates of death? Will we descend together into the dust?" |
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