Job 7

¹“Is there not a time of hard service for man on earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hired man?

²Like a servant who earnestly desires the shade, And like a hired man who eagerly looks for his wages,

³So I have been allotted months of futility, And wearisome nights have been appointed to me.

⁴When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I arise, And the night be ended?’ For I have had my fill of tossing till dawn.

⁵My flesh is caked with worms and dust, My skin is cracked and breaks out afresh.

⁶“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, And are spent without hope.

⁷Oh, remember that my life is a breath! My eye will never again see good.

⁸The eye of him who sees me will see me no more; While your eyes are upon me, I shall no longer be.

⁹As the cloud disappears and vanishes away, So he who goes down to the grave does not come up.

¹⁰He shall never return to his house, Nor shall his place know him anymore.

¹¹“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹²Am I a sea, or a sea serpent, That You set a guard over me?

¹³When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, My couch will ease my complaint,’

¹⁴Then You scare me with dreams And terrify me with visions,

¹⁵So that my soul chooses strangling And death rather than my body.

¹⁶I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone, For my days are but a breath.

¹⁷“What is man, that You should exalt him, That You should set Your heart on him,

¹⁸That You should visit him every morning, And test him every moment?

¹⁹How long? Will You not look away from me, And let me alone till I swallow my saliva?

²⁰Have I sinned? What have I done to You, O watcher of men? Why have You set me as Your target, So that I am a burden to myself?

²¹Why then do You not pardon my transgression, And take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust, And You will seek me diligently, But I will no longer be.”