²¹ before I go—and ^(A)I shall not return—
    to the land of ^(B)darkness and ^(C)deep shadow,

⁵ Let gloom and ^(A)deep darkness claim it.
    Let clouds dwell upon it;
    let the blackness of the day terrify it.

²² For when a few years have come
    I shall go the way ^(A)from which I shall not return.

¹⁰ But a man dies and is laid low;
    man breathes his last, and ^(A)where is he?
^11 (B)As waters fail from a lake
    and a river wastes away and dries up,
¹² so a man lies down and rises not again;
    till ^(C)the heavens are no more he will not awake
    or be ^(D)roused out of his sleep.
¹³ Oh that you would ^(E)hide me in ^(F)Sheol,
    that you would ^(G)conceal me ^(H)until your wrath be past,
    that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
¹⁴ If a man dies, shall he live again?
    All the days of my ^(I)service I would ^(J)wait,
    till my renewal^[a] should come.

^8 (A)The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;
    while your eyes are on me, ^(B)I shall be gone.
⁹ As ^(C)the cloud fades and vanishes,
    so he who ^(D)goes down to Sheol does not come up;
¹⁰ he ^(E)returns no more to his house,
    nor does his ^(F)place know him anymore.

⁶ They did not say, ^(A)‘Where is the Lord
    who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
who led us ^(B)in the wilderness,
    in a land of deserts and pits,
in a land of drought and deep darkness,
    in a land that none passes through,
    where no man dwells?’