Holy Bible - American Standard Version(ASV)

¹Is there not a warfare to man upon earth?

And are not his days like the days of a hireling?

²As a servant that earnestly desireth the shadow,

And as a hireling that looketh for his wages:

³So am I made to possess months of misery,

And wearisome nights are appointed to me.

⁴When I lie down, I say,

When shall I arise, and the night be gone?

And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.

⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust;

My skin closeth up, and breaketh out afresh.

⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,

And are spent without hope.

⁷Oh remember that my life is a breath:

Mine eye shall no more see good.

⁸The eye of him that seeth me shall behold me no more;

Thine eyes shall be upon me, but I shall not be.

⁹As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away,

So he that goeth down to Sheol shall come up no more.

¹⁰He shall return no more to his house,

Neither shall his place know him any more.

¹¹Therefore I will not refrain my mouth;

I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;

I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹²Am I a sea, or a sea-monster,

That thou settest a watch over me?

¹³When I say, My bed shall comfort me,

My couch shall ease my complaint;

¹⁴Then thou scarest me with dreams,

And terrifiest me through visions:

¹⁵So that my soul chooseth strangling,

And death rather than these my bones.

¹⁶I loathe my life; I would not live alway:

Let me alone; for my days are vanity.

¹⁷What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him,

And that thou shouldest set thy mind upon him,

¹⁸And that thou shouldest visit him every morning,

And try him every moment?

¹⁹How long wilt thou not look away from me,

Nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?

²⁰If I have sinned, what do I unto thee, O thou watcher of men?

Why hast thou set me as a mark for thee,

So that I am a burden to myself?

²¹And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity?

For now shall I lie down in the dust;

And thou wilt seek me diligently, but I shall not be.