[1] "Has not man a hard service upon earth, and are not his days like the
days of a hireling? [2] Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a
hireling who looks for his wages, [3] so I am allotted months of emptiness,
and nights of misery are apportioned to me. [4] When I lie down I say, `en
I lie down I say, "When shall I arise?' But the night is long, and I am
full of tossing till the dawn. [5] My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;
my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh. [6] My days are swifter than a
weaver's shuttle, and come to their end without hope. [7] "Remember that my
life is a breath; my eye will never again see good. [8] The eye of him who
sees me will behold me no more; while thy eyes are upon me, I shall be
gone. [9] As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol
does not come up; [10] he returns no more to his house, nor does his place
know him any more. [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. [12] Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that thou settest a guard over
me? [13] When I say, `en I say, "My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease
my complaint,' [14] then thou dost scare me with dreams and terrify me with
visions, [15] so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my
bones. [16] I loathe my life; I would not live for ever. Let me alone, for
my days are a breath. [17] What is man, that thou dost make so much of him,
and that thou dost set thy mind upon him, [18] dost visit him every
morning, and test him every moment? [19] How long wilt thou not look away
from me, nor let me alone till I swallow my spittle? [20] If I sin, what do
I do to thee, thou watcher of men? Why hast thou made me thy mark? Why have
I become a burden to thee? [21] Why dost thou not pardon my transgression
and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; thou wilt seek
me, but I shall not be."
