²¹ before I leave—never to return—
    for the land of darkness and utter gloom.

⁵ Let the darkness and utter gloom claim that day for its own.
    Let a black cloud overshadow it,
    and let the darkness terrify it.

⁴ Even when I walk
    through the darkest valley,^[a]
I will not be afraid,
    for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
    protect and comfort me.

²² For soon I must go down that road
    from which I will never return.

¹⁰ “But when people die, their strength is gone.
    They breathe their last, and then where are they?
¹¹ As water evaporates from a lake
    and a river disappears in drought,
¹² people are laid to rest and do not rise again.
    Until the heavens are no more, they will not wake up
    nor be roused from their sleep.

¹³ “I wish you would hide me in the grave^[a]
    and forget me there until your anger has passed.
    But mark your calendar to think of me again!
¹⁴ Can the dead live again?
    If so, this would give me hope through all my years of struggle,
    and I would eagerly await the release of death.

⁶ They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord
    who brought us safely out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness—
    a land of deserts and pits,
a land of drought and death,
    where no one lives or even travels?’

¹¹ I said, “Never again will I see the Lord God
    while still in the land of the living.
Never again will I see my friends
    or be with those who live in this world.