²¹ Before I go to the place from which I will not come back, to the land where all is dark and black,

⁵ Let the dark and the black night take it for themselves; let it be covered with a cloud; let the dark shades of day send fear on it.

²³ But now that the child is dead there is no reason for me to go without food; am I able to make him come back to life? I will go to him, but he will never come back to me.

⁴ Yes, though I go through the valley of deep shade, I will have no fear of evil; for you are with me, your rod and your support are my comfort.

²² For in a short time I will take the journey from which I will not come back.

¹⁰ But man comes to his death and is gone: he gives up his spirit, and where is he?

¹¹ The waters go from a pool, and a river becomes waste and dry;

¹² So man goes down to his last resting-place and comes not again: till the heavens come to an end, they will not be awake or come out of their sleep.

¹³ If only you would keep me safe in the underworld, putting me in a secret place till your wrath is past, giving me a fixed time when I might come to your memory again!

¹⁴ If death takes a man, will he come to life again? All the days of my trouble I would be waiting, till the time came for me to be free.

⁸ The eye of him who sees me will see me no longer: your eyes will be looking for me, but I will be gone.

⁹ A cloud comes to an end and is gone; so he who goes down into the underworld comes not up again.

¹⁰ He will not come back to his house, and his place will have no more knowledge of him.

⁶ And they never said, Where is the Lord, who took us up out of the land of Egypt; who was our guide through the waste of sand, through an unplanted land full of deep holes, through a dry land of deep shade, which no one went through and where no man was living?

¹¹ I said, I will not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living: I will not see man again or those living in the world.

¹¹ Will the story of your mercy be given in the house of the dead? will news of your faith come to the place of destruction?

¹² May there be knowledge of your wonders in the dark? or of your righteousness where memory is dead?

⁶ You have put me in the lowest deep, even in dark places.

¹³ For then I might have gone to my rest in quiet, and in sleep have been in peace,

¹⁴ For death comes to us all, and we are like water drained out on the earth, which it is not possible to take up again; and God will not take away the life of the man whose purpose is that he who has been sent away may not be completely cut off from him.