³ “Lay down a pledge for me with yourself;
    who is there who will give surety for me?^(C)
4 Since you have closed their minds to understanding,
    therefore you will not let them triumph.^(D)
5 Those who denounce friends for reward—
    the eyes of their children will fail.^(E)

⁶ “He has made me a byword of the peoples,
    and I am one before whom people spit.^(F)
7 My eye has grown dim from grief,
    and all my members are like a shadow.^(G)
8 The upright are appalled at this,
    and the innocent stir themselves up against the godless.
⁹ Yet the righteous hold to their way,
    and they who have clean hands grow stronger and stronger.^(H)
10 But you, come back now, all of you,
    and I shall not find a sensible person among you.
¹¹ My days are past; my plans are broken off,
    the desires of my heart.^(I)
12 They make night into day;
    ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’^[a]
13 If I look for Sheol as my house,
    if I spread my couch in darkness,^(J)
14 if I say to the Pit, ‘You are my father,’
    and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’^(K)
15 where then is my hope?
    Who will see my hope?^(L)
16 Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
    Shall we descend together into the dust?”^(M)