³ “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
    who is there who will put up security for me?
⁴ Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
    therefore you will not let them triumph.
⁵ He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
    the eyes of his children will fail.

⁶ “He has made me a byword of the peoples,
    and I am one before whom men spit.
⁷ My eye has grown dim from vexation,
    and all my members are like a shadow.
⁸ The upright are appalled at this,
    and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
⁹ Yet the righteous holds to his way,
    and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
¹⁰ But you, come on again, all of you,
    and I shall not find a wise man among you.
¹¹ My days are past; my plans are broken off,
    the desires of my heart.
¹² They make night into day:
    ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’^[a]
13 If I hope for Sheol as my house,
    if I make my bed in darkness,
¹⁴ if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
    and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
¹⁵ where then is my hope?
    Who will see my hope?
¹⁶ Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
    Shall we descend together into the dust?”^[b]