Job 7

¹ Is not human life on earth just conscript service? Do we not live a hireling's life?

² Like a slave, sighing for the shade, or a hireling with no thought but for his wages,

³ I have months of futility assigned to me, nights of suffering to be my lot.

⁴ Lying in bed I wonder, 'When wil it be day?' No sooner up than, 'When wil evening come?' And crazythoughts obsess me til twilight fal s.

⁵ Vermin and loathsome scabs cover my body; my skin is cracked and oozes pus.

⁶ Swifter than a weaver's shuttle my days have passed, and vanished, leaving no hope behind.

⁷ Remember that my life is but a breath, and that my eyes will never again see joy.

⁸ The eye that once saw me wil look on me no more, your eyes wil turn my way, and I shal not be there.

⁹ A cloud dissolves and is gone, so no one who goes down to Sheol ever comes up again,

¹⁰ ever comes home again, and his house knows that person no more.

¹¹ That is why I cannot keep quiet: in my anguish of spirit I shal speak, in my bitterness of soul I shalcomplain.

¹² Am I the Sea, or some sea monster, that you should keep me under guard?

¹³ If I say, 'My bed wil comfort me, my couch wil lighten my complaints,'

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

¹⁵ so that strangling would seem welcome in comparison, yes, death preferable to what I suffer.

¹⁶ I am wasting away, my life is not unending; leave me then, for my days are but a breath.

¹⁷ What are human beings that you should take them so seriously, subjecting them to your scrutiny,

¹⁸ that morning after morning you should examine them and at every instant test them?

¹⁹ Wil you never take your eyes off me long enough for me to swal ow my spittle?

²⁰ Suppose I have sinned, what have I done to you, you tireless watcher of humanity? Why do youchoose me as your target? Why should I be a burden to you?

²¹ Can you not tolerate my sin, not overlook my fault? For soon I shal be lying in the dust, you wil lookfor me and I shal be no more.