Job 7

1Does not a human being have hard service on earth? Are not his days like the days of a hired worker?

2Like a slave who longs for the shade, like a hired worker who waits for his wages,

3so I have been assigned months of emptiness, and nights of misery have been allotted to me.

4When I lie down, I say, ‘When will I get up?’ But the night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.

5My flesh is clothed with worms and crusts of dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks open and oozes.

6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope.

7Remember that my life is a breath; my eyes will never again see good.

8The eye of the one who sees me will see me no more; your eyes will be on me, but I will be gone.

9As a cloud fades and vanishes, so the one who goes down to Sheol does not come up.

10He never returns to his house, and his place no longer knows him.

11So I will not hold back 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 set a guard over me?

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

14then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions,

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

16I loathe my life; I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.

17What is a human being, that you make so much of him, that you pay attention to him,

18that you inspect him every morning and test him every moment?

19How long before you look away from me, or leave me alone long enough to swallow my spit?

20If I have sinned, what have I done to you, you watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target, so that I have become a burden to myself?

21Why do you not forgive my transgression and take away my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be gone.”