Job 7

¹ Is there not a warfare to man on earth? And as the days of an hireling his days?

² As a servant desireth the shadow, And as a hireling expecteth his wage,

³ So I have been caused to inherit months of vanity, And nights of misery they numbered to me.

⁴ If I lay down then I said, ‘When do I rise!’ And evening hath been measured, And I have been full of tossings till dawn.

⁵ Clothed hath been my flesh [with] worms, And a clod of dust, My skin hath been shrivelled and is loathsome,

⁶ My days swifter than a weaving machine, And they are consumed without hope.

⁷ Remember Thou that my life [is] a breath, Mine eye turneth not back to see good.

⁸ The eye of my beholder beholdeth me not. Thine eyes [are] upon me — and I am not.

⁹ Consumed hath been a cloud, and it goeth, So he who is going down to Sheol cometh not up.

¹⁰ He turneth not again to his house, Nor doth his place discern him again.

¹¹ Also I — I withhold not my mouth — I speak in the distress of my spirit, I talk in the bitterness of my soul.

¹² A sea -[monster] am I, or a dragon, That thou settest over me a guard?

¹³ When I said, ‘My bed doth comfort me,’ He taketh away in my talking my couch.

¹⁴ And thou hast affrighted me with dreams, And from visions thou terrifiest me,

¹⁵ And my soul chooseth strangling, Death rather than my bones.

¹⁶ I have wasted away — not to the age do I live. Cease from me, for my days [are] vanity.

¹⁷ What [is] man that Thou dost magnify him? And that Thou settest unto him Thy heart?

¹⁸ And inspectest him in the mornings, In the evenings dost try him?

¹⁹ How long dost Thou not look from me? Thou dost not desist till I swallow my spittle.

²⁰ I have sinned, what do I to Thee, O watcher of man? Why hast Thou set me for a mark to Thee, And I am for a burden to myself — and what?

²¹ Thou dost not take away my transgression, And cause to pass away mine iniquity, Because now, for dust I lie down: And Thou hast sought me — and I am not!