Read the Bible

¹ The end of my life is near. I can hardly breathe;
    there is nothing left for me but the grave.
² I watch how bitterly everyone mocks me.
³ I am being honest, God. Accept my word.
    There is no one else to support what I say.
⁴ You have closed their minds to reason;
    don't let them triumph over me now.
⁵ In the old proverb someone betrays his friends for money,
    and his children suffer for it.^[a]
6 And now people use this proverb against me;
    they come and spit in my face.
⁷ My grief has almost made me blind;
    my arms and legs are as thin as shadows.
⁸ Those who claim to be honest are shocked,
    and they all condemn me as godless.
⁹ Those who claim to be respectable
    are more and more convinced they are right.
¹⁰ But if all of them came and stood before me,
    I would not find even one of them wise.

¹¹ My days have passed; my plans have failed;
    my hope is gone.
¹² But my friends say night is daylight;
    they say that light is near,
    but I know I remain in darkness.
¹³ My only hope is the world of the dead,
    where I will lie down to sleep in the dark.
¹⁴ I will call the grave my father,
    and the worms that eat me
    I will call my mother and my sisters.
¹⁵ Where is there any hope for me?
    Who sees any?
¹⁶ Hope will not go with me^[b]
    when I go down to the world of the dead.