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

⁶ “But He has made me ^(F)a byword of the people,
And I have become one in whose face men spit.
^7 (G)My eye has also grown dim because of sorrow,
And all my members are like shadows.
⁸ Upright men are astonished at this,
And the innocent stirs himself up against the hypocrite.
⁹ Yet the righteous will hold to his ^(H)way,
And he who has ^(I)clean hands will be stronger and stronger.

¹⁰ “But please, ^(J)come back again, ^[b]all of you,
For I shall not find one wise man among you.
^11 (K)My days are past,
My purposes are broken off,
Even the ^[c]thoughts of my heart.
¹² They change the night into day;
‘The light is near,’ they say, in the face of darkness.
¹³ If I wait for the grave as my house,
If I make my bed in the darkness,
¹⁴ If I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’
And to the worm, ‘You are my mother and my sister,’
¹⁵ Where then is my ^(L)hope?
As for my hope, who can see it?
¹⁶ Will they go down ^(M)to the gates of ^[d]Sheol?
Shall we have ^(N)rest together in the dust?”