Historical

17 My spirit is broken.
My days are extinguished.
A graveyard^(A) awaits me.
² Surely mockers surround^[a] me,
and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.^(B)

³ Accept my pledge! Put up security for me.^(C)
Who else will be my sponsor?^[b]
4 You have closed their minds to understanding,
therefore you will not honor them.
⁵ If a man denounces his friends for a price,
the eyes of his children will fail.

⁶ He has made me an object of scorn to the people;
I have become a man people spit at.^[c](D)
7 My eyes have grown dim from grief,
and my whole body has become but a shadow.
⁸ The upright are appalled^(E) at this,
and the innocent are roused against the godless.
⁹ Yet the righteous person will hold to his way,
and the one whose hands are clean^(F) will grow stronger.
¹⁰ But come back and try again, all of you.^[d]
I will not find a wise man among you.

¹¹ My days have slipped by;
my plans have been ruined,
even the things dear to my heart.
¹² They turned night into day
and made light seem near in the face of darkness.^(G)
13 If I await Sheol as my home,
spread out my bed in darkness,
¹⁴ and say to corruption, “You are my father,”
and to the maggot, “My mother” or “My sister,”^(H)
15 where then is my hope?^(I)
Who can see any hope for me?
¹⁶ Will it go down to the gates of Sheol,^(J)
or will we descend together to the dust?

⁵ Yes, the light^(L) of the wicked^(M) is extinguished;
the flame of his fire does not glow.
⁶ The light in his tent grows dark,^(N)
and the lamp beside him is put out.

⁷ His powerful stride is shortened,
and his own schemes trip him up.^(O)
8 For his own feet lead him into a net,
and he strays into its mesh.
⁹ A trap catches him by the heel;
a noose seizes him.
¹⁰ A rope lies hidden for him on the ground,
and a snare waits for him along the path.
¹¹ Terrors frighten him on every side^(P)
and harass him at every step.
¹² His strength is depleted;
disaster lies ready for him to stumble.^[f]

¹³ Parts of his skin are eaten away;
death’s firstborn consumes his limbs.
¹⁴ He is ripped from the security of his tent
and marched away to the king of terrors.
¹⁵ Nothing he owned remains in his tent.
Burning sulfur^(Q) is scattered over his home.
¹⁶ His roots below dry up,
and his branches above wither away.^(R)
17 All memory^(S) of him perishes from the earth;
he has no name anywhere.^[g]
18 He is driven from light to darkness
and chased from the inhabited world.
¹⁹ He has no children or descendants among his people,
no survivor where he used to live.^(T)
20 Those in the west are appalled^(U) at his fate,
while those in the east tremble in horror.

²¹ Indeed, such is the dwelling of the unjust man,
and this is the place of the one who does not know God.^(V)

²³ I wish that my words were written down,
that they were recorded on a scroll
²⁴ or were inscribed in stone forever
by an iron stylus and lead!
²⁵ But I know that my Redeemer lives,^[o](AO)
and at the end he will stand on the dust.^(AP)
26 Even after my skin has been destroyed,^[p]
yet I will see God in^[q] my flesh.^(AQ)
27 I will see him myself;
my eyes will look at him, and not as a stranger.^[r]
My heart longs^[s] within me.^(AR)

²⁸ If you say, “How will we pursue him,
since the root of the problem lies with him?” ^[t]
29 then be afraid of the sword,
because wrath brings punishment by the sword,^(AS)
so that you may know there is a judgment.

⁴ Don’t you know that ever since antiquity,
from the time a human was placed on earth,
⁵ the joy of the wicked has been brief
and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment?^(AV)
6 Though his arrogance reaches heaven,
and his head touches the clouds,^(AW)
7 he will vanish forever like his own dung.
Those who know^[w] him will ask, “Where is he?” ^(AX)
8 He will fly away like a dream and never be found;
he will be chased away like a vision in the night.^(AY)
9 The eye that saw him will see him no more,^(AZ)
and his household will no longer see him.^(BA)
10 His children will beg from^[x] the poor,
for his own hands must give back his wealth.
¹¹ His frame may be full of youthful vigor,
but it will lie down with him in dust.^(BB)

¹² Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth
and he conceals it under his tongue,
¹³ though he cherishes it and will not let it go
but keeps it in his mouth,^(BC)
14 yet the food in his stomach turns
into cobras’ venom inside him.
¹⁵ He swallows wealth but must vomit it up;
God will force it from his stomach.
¹⁶ He will suck the poison of cobras;
a viper’s fangs^[y] will kill him.^(BD)
17 He will not enjoy the streams,
the rivers flowing with honey and curds.^(BE)
18 He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it;
he doesn’t enjoy the profits from his trading.
¹⁹ For he oppressed and abandoned the poor;
he seized a house he did not build.^(BF)

²⁰ Because his appetite is never satisfied,^[z]
he does not let anything he desires escape.
²¹ Nothing is left for him to consume;^(BG)
therefore, his prosperity will not last.
²² At the height of his success^[aa] distress will come to him;^(BH)
the full weight of misery^[ab] will crush him.
²³ When he fills his stomach,
God will send his burning anger against him,
raining^(BI) it down on him while he is eating.^[ac]
24 If he flees from an iron weapon,
an arrow from a bronze bow will pierce him.
²⁵ He pulls it out of his back,
the flashing tip out of his liver.^[ad]
Terrors come over him.^(BJ)
26 Total darkness is reserved for his treasures.
A fire unfanned by human hands will consume^(BK) him;
it will feed on what is left in his tent.
²⁷ The heavens will expose his iniquity,^(BL)
and the earth will rise up against him.^(BM)
28 The possessions in his house will be removed,
flowing away on the day of God’s anger.
²⁹ This is the wicked person’s lot^(BN) from God,
the inheritance God ordained for him.