Job 7

1 “Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?⋮

2 As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,⋮

3 so I am made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.⋮

4 When I lie down, I say, ‘When will I arise, and the night be gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.⋮

5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.⋮

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

7 Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good.⋮

8 The eye of him who sees me will see me no more. Your eyes will be on me, but I will not be.⋮

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

10 He will return no more to his house, neither will his place know him any more.⋮

11 “Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.⋮

12 Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?⋮

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

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

15 so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.⋮

16 I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.⋮

17 What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,⋮

18 that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?⋮

19 How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?⋮

20 If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?⋮

21 Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now will I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I will not be.”⋮