³ “Now put down a pledge for me with Yourself.
    Who is he who will shake hands with me?
⁴ For You have hidden their heart from understanding.
    Therefore will You not exalt them.
⁵ He who speaks flattery to his friends,
    even the eyes of his children will fail.

⁶ “And He has made me a byword of the people,
    someone in whose face they spit.
⁷ My eye also is dim because of sorrow,
    and all my members are like a shadow.
⁸ Upright men will be astonished at this,
    and the innocent will stir up himself against the hypocrite.
⁹ The righteous also will hold to his way,
    and he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger.

¹⁰ “But as for you all, return and come now,
    for I cannot find one wise man among you.
¹¹ My days are past, my purposes are broken off,
    even the thoughts of my heart.
¹² They change the night into day;
    the light is short because of darkness.
¹³ If I wait, the grave is my house;
    I have made my bed in the darkness.
¹⁴ I have said to the pit, ‘You are my father’;
    to the worm, ‘You are my mother and my sister.’
¹⁵ Where now is my hope?
    As for my hope, who will see it?
¹⁶ Will they go down to the gates of Sheol?
    Will we descend together in the dust?”