¹³ For now I ^(A)would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept then; it would have been rest to me,
¹⁴ With ^(B)kings and with ^(C)counselors of the earth,
Who rebuilt ^(D)waste places for themselves,
¹⁵ Or with ^(E)princes ^(F)who had gold,
Who were filling their houses with silver.
¹⁶ Or why was I not like a miscarriage hidden away,
As infants that never saw light?
¹⁷ There the wicked cease from raging,
And there the weary of strength are at ^(G)rest.
¹⁸ The prisoners are at ease together;
They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
¹⁹ The small and the great are there,
And the slave is free from his master.

⁸ The ^(A)eye of him who sees me will behold me no longer;
Your eyes will be on me, but ^(B)I will not be.
⁹ A ^(C)cloud vanishes, and it is gone,
So ^(D)he who goes down to ^(E)Sheol does not come up.
¹⁰ He will not return again to his house,
Nor will ^(F)his place recognize him anymore.

²¹ Why then ^(A)do You not forgive my transgression
And take away my iniquity?
For now I will ^(B)lie down in the dust;
And You will seek me earnestly, ^(C)but I will not be.”

²¹ Before I go—^(A)and I shall not return—
^(B)To the land of darkness and ^(C)shadow of death,
²² The land of utter gloom as the thick darkness itself,
Of the shadow of death, without order,
And which shines as the thick darkness.”

¹⁰ But ^(A)man dies and lies prostrate.
Man ^(B)breathes his last, and where is he?
¹¹ As ^(C)water ^[a]evaporates from the sea,
And a river becomes parched and dried up,
¹² So ^(D)man lies down and does not rise.
Until the heavens are no longer,
^[b]He will not awake nor be aroused out of ^[c]his sleep.

¹³ “Oh that You would conceal me in Sheol,
That You would hide me ^(E)until Your anger returns to You,
That You would set a limit for me and remember me!
¹⁴ If a man dies, will he live again?
All the days of my labor I will wait
Until my change comes.
¹⁵ You will call, and I will answer You;
You will long for ^(F)the work of Your hands.

²⁰ You forever overpower him and he ^(A)goes away;
You alter his appearance and send him away.
²¹ His sons achieve honor, but ^(B)he does not know it;
Or they become insignificant, but he does not perceive it.
²² But his flesh pains him,
And he mourns only for himself.”

²² For when a few years are past,
I shall go the way ^(A)of no return.

¹³ If I hope for ^(A)Sheol as my home,
I ^[a]make my bed in the darkness;
¹⁴ If I call to the ^(B)pit, ‘You are my father’;
To the ^(C)worm, ‘my mother and my sister’;
¹⁵ Where now is ^(D)my hope?
And who beholds my hope?
^16 [b]Will it go down with me to Sheol?
Shall we together ^(E)go down into the dust?”

²⁵ As for me, I know that ^(A)my ^[a]Redeemer lives,
And ^[b]at the last He will rise up over the dust of this world.
²⁶ Even after my skin ^[c]is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I shall ^(B)behold God,
²⁷ Whom I ^[d]myself shall behold,
And whom my eyes will see and not another.
My ^[e]heart ^(C)faints ^[f]within me!