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, ‘When shall I arise?’

But the night is long,

and I am full of tossing till the dawn.