Job 7

Job Continues: Life Seems Futile

¹ “Is not man consigned to labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired hand?

² Like a slave he longs for shade; like a hireling he waits for his wages.

³ So I am allotted months of futility, and nights of misery are appointed to me.

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

⁵ My flesh is clothed with worms and encrusted with dirt; my skin is cracked and festering.

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

⁷ Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.

⁸ The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more.

⁹ As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up.

¹⁰ He never returns to his house; his place remembers him no 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 the monster of the deep, that You must keep me under guard?

¹³ When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint,

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

¹⁵ so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body.

¹⁶ I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

¹⁷ What is man that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart upon him,

¹⁸ that You attend to him every morning, and test him every moment?

¹⁹ Will You never look away from me, or leave me alone to swallow my spittle?

²⁰ If I have sinned, what have I done to You, O watcher of mankind? Why have You made me Your target, so that I am a burden to You ¹?

²¹ Why do You not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the dust; You will seek me, but I will be no more.”