Job 7

7Isn’t each person consigned to forced labor^h on earth?

Are not his days like those of a hired worker?

²Like a slave he longs for shade;

like a hired worker he waits for his pay.

³So I have been made to inherit months of futility,

and troubled nights have been assigned to me.ⁱ

⁴When I lie down I think,

“When will I get up?”

But the evening drags on endlessly,

and I toss and turn until dawn.

⁵My flesh is clothed with maggots and encrusted with dirt.^C

My skin forms scabs^D and then oozes.^j

⁶My days pass more swiftly than a weaver’s shuttle;

they come to an end without hope.^k

⁷Remember that my life is but a breath.

My eye will never again see anything good.^l

⁸The eye of anyone who looks on me

will no longer see me.

Your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone.^m

⁹As a cloud fades away and vanishes,

so the one who goes down to Sheolⁿ will never rise again.

¹⁰He will never return to his house;

his hometown will no longer remember^A him.^o

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^Ba or a sea monster,^b

that you keep me under guard?

¹³When I say, “My bed will comfort me,

and my couch will ease my complaint,”

¹⁴then you frighten me with dreams,

and terrify me with visions,^c

¹⁵so that I prefer strangling^C—

death rather than life in this body.^Dd

¹⁶I give up! I will not live forever.

Leave me alone,^e for my days are a breath.^E

¹⁷What is a mere human, that you think so highly of him

and pay so much attention to him?^f

¹⁸You inspect him every morning,

and put him to the test every moment.^g

¹⁹Will you ever look away from me,

or leave me alone long enough to swallow?^F

²⁰If I have sinned, what have I done to you,

Watcher of humanity?

Why have you made me your target,^h

so that I have become a burden to you?^G

²¹Why not forgive my sin

and pardon my iniquity?ⁱ

For soon I will lie down in the grave.^j

You will eagerly seek me, but I will be gone.^k