²² Indeed, after a few years^[a] have come,
then^[b] I will go the way from which I will not return.

17 “My spirit is pulled down; my days are extinguished;
the graveyard is for me.
² Surely^[c] mockery is with me,
and my eye rests^[d] on their provocation.
³ Please lay down a pledge for me with yourself;
who is he who will give security for my hand?^[e]
4 Indeed,^[f] you have closed their mind from understanding;
therefore, you will not let them triumph.
⁵ He denounces friends for reward,
so^[g] his children’s eyes will fail.
⁶ “And he has made me a proverb for^[h] the peoples,
and I am one before whom people spit.^[i]
7 And my eye has grown dim from grief,
and the limbs of my body are all^[j] like a shadow.
⁸ The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent excites himself over the godless.
⁹ But^[k] the righteous holds on to his way,
and he who has clean hands^[l] increases in strength.