Job 7

¹“Is not all human life a struggle? Our lives are like that of a hired hand, ² like a worker who longs for the shade, like a servant waiting to be paid. ³ I, too, have been assigned months of futility, long and weary nights of misery. ⁴ Lying in bed, I think, ‘When will it be morning?’ But the night drags on, and I toss till dawn. ⁵ My body is covered with maggots and scabs. My skin breaks open, oozing with pus.

Job Cries Out to God ⁶ “My days fly faster than a weaver’s shuttle. They end without hope. ⁷ O God, remember that my life is but a breath, and I will never again feel happiness. ⁸ You see me now, but not for long. You will look for me, but I will be gone. ⁹ Just as a cloud dissipates and vanishes, those who die Hebrew who go down to Sheol. will not come back. ¹⁰ They are gone forever from their home— never to be seen again.

¹¹“I cannot keep from speaking. I must express my anguish. My bitter soul must complain. ¹² Am I a sea monster or a dragon that you must place me under guard? ¹³ I think, ‘My bed will comfort me, and sleep will ease my misery,’ ¹⁴ but then you shatter me with dreams and terrify me with visions. ¹⁵ I would rather be strangled— rather die than suffer like this. ¹⁶ I hate my life and don’t want to go on living. Oh, leave me alone for my few remaining days.

¹⁷“What are people, that you should make so much of us, that you should think of us so often? ¹⁸ For you examine us every morning and test us every moment. ¹⁹ Why won’t you leave me alone, at least long enough for me to swallow! ²⁰ If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of all humanity? Why make me your target? Am I a burden to you? ²¹ Why not just forgive my sin and take away my guilt? For soon I will lie down in the dust and die. When you look for me, I will be gone.”