Dual Panel1My mind is distraught, my days are numbered, and the grave awaits me.
2Wherever I turn, I am taunted, and my eye meets nothing but sneers.
3Be my surety with yourself, for who else will pledge himself for me?
4You will not let those triumph whose minds you have sunk in ignorance;
5if such a one denounces his friends to their ruin, his sons' eyes will fail.
6I am held up as a byword in every land, a marvel for all to see;
7my eyes are dimmed by grief, my limbs wasted to a shadow.
8The upright are bewildered at this, and at my downfall the innocent are indignant.
9In spite of all, one who is righteous maintains his course; he goes from strength to strength whose hands are clean.
10But come on, one and all, try again! I shall not find one who is wise among you.
11My days die away like an echo; my heart-strings are snapped.
12Night is turned into day, and morning light is darkened before me.
13If I measure Sheol for my house, if I spread my couch in the darkness,
14if I call the grave my father and the worm my mother or my sister,
15where, then, will my hope be, and who will take account of my piety?
16I cannot take them with me down to Sheol, nor shall we descend together to the dust.