³ God, please help me to become free again.
    Nobody else will pay the price to do that for me.
⁴ You have stopped my friends from thinking properly.
    So do not allow them to win the argument.
⁵ People may turn against their friends
    to get things for themselves.
If they do that, their children should become blind.
⁶ You have caused people to insult me,
    like that proverb says.
People even spit at my face.
⁷ I have cried so much that my eyes have become weak.
    My body is so thin that I am like a shadow.
⁸ Good people are upset,
    when they see what is happening to me.
They are angry with those who turn away from you.
⁹ Righteous people continue to do things that are right.
    People who do good things become stronger.

¹⁰ But you, my friends, come here!
    Try again to help me, all of you!
I will not find a wise man among you.
¹¹ I will not live for many more days.
    I will never do the things that I wanted to do.
¹² My friends say, “It is day”,
    when it is still night.
They do not know the difference between light and dark.
¹³ The only home that I hope to go to is my grave.
    I will lie down to sleep there in the dark.
¹⁴ I will say to the grave,
    “You are my father.”
I will say to the worms that eat me,
    “Hello, my mother. Hello, my sister.”
¹⁵ I can hope for nothing that is better than that.
    No one can find anything better for me.
¹⁶ When I go to the world of dead people,
    all my hope will have finished.
Everything that I had hoped for will lie with me in the dust.’