Job 7

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¹Does not man have hard labor on earth? Are not his days like the days of a hired man?

²Like a slave earnestly desires the shadows of evening, like a hired man looks for his wages—

³so I have been made to endure months of misery; I have been given trouble-filled nights.

⁴When I lie down, I say to myself, 'When will I get up and when will the night be gone?' I am full of tossing to and fro until the day's dawning.

⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; the sores in my skin harden up and then dissolve and run afresh.

⁶My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle; they pass without hope.

⁷God, call to mind that my life is only a breath; my eye will no more see good.

⁸The eye of God, who sees me, will see me no more; God's eyes will be on me, but I will not exist.

⁹As a cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol will come up no more.

¹⁰He will return no more to his house; neither will his place know him again.

¹¹Therefore 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 the sea or a sea monster that you place a guard over me?

¹³When I say, 'My bed will comfort me, and my couch will ease my complaint,'

¹⁴then you scare me with dreams and terrify me through visions,

¹⁵so that I would choose strangling and death rather than preserving these bones of mine.

¹⁶I loathe my life; I would not wish to always be alive; let me alone for my days are useless.

¹⁷What is man that you should pay attention to him, that you should set your mind on him,

¹⁸that you should observe him every morning and test him every moment?

¹⁹How long will it be before you look away from me, before you let me alone long enough for me to swallow down my own saliva?

²⁰Even if I have sinned, what would that do to you, you who watch men? Why have you made a target of me, so that I am a burden for you?

²¹Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now will I lie down in the dust; you will seek me carefully, but I will not exist.”