²¹ before I go to the place of no return,^(A)
    to the land of gloom and utter darkness,^(B)

⁵ May gloom and utter darkness^(A) claim it once more;
    may a cloud settle over it;
    may blackness overwhelm it.

²² “Only a few years will pass
    before I take the path of no return.^(A)

¹⁰ But a man dies and is laid low;^(A)
    he breathes his last and is no more.^(B)
11 As the water of a lake dries up
    or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,^(C)
12 so he lies down and does not rise;^(D)
    till the heavens are no more,^(E) people will not awake
    or be roused from their sleep.^(F)

¹³ “If only you would hide me in the grave^(G)
    and conceal me till your anger has passed!^(H)
If only you would set me a time
    and then remember^(I) me!^(J)
14 If someone dies, will they live again?
    All the days of my hard service^(K)
    I will wait for my renewal^[a](L) to come.

⁸ The eye that now sees me will see me no longer;
    you will look for me, but I will be no more.^(A)
9 As a cloud vanishes^(B) and is gone,
    so one who goes down to the grave^(C) does not return.^(D)
10 He will never come to his house again;
    his place^(E) will know him no more.^(F)

⁶ They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord,
    who brought us up out of Egypt^(A)
and led us through the barren wilderness,
    through a land of deserts^(B) and ravines,^(C)
a land of drought and utter darkness,
    a land where no one travels^(D) and no one lives?’

¹¹ I said, “I will not again see the Lord himself^(A)
    in the land of the living;^(B)
no longer will I look on my fellow man,
    or be with those who now dwell in this world.