-
7:1 'Has not man a hard service upon earth, and are not his days like the days of a hireling? 7:2 Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hireling who looks for his wages, 7:3 so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me. 7:4 When I lie down I say, When shall I arise?' But the night is long, and I am full of tossing till the dawn. 7:5 My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh. 7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and come to their end without hope. 7:7 'Remember that my life is a breath;my eye will never again see good. 7:8 The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;while thy eyes are upon me, I shall be gone. 7:9 As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up; 7:10 he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him any more. 7:11 '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. 7:12 Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that thou settest a guard over me? 7:13 When I say, My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,' 7:14 then thou dost scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, 7:15 so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones. 7:16 I loathe my life;I would not live for ever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath. 7:17 What is man, that thou dost make so much of him, and that thou dost set thy mind upon him, 7:18 dost visit him every morning, and test him every moment? 7:19 How long wilt thou not look away from me, nor let me alone till I swallow my spittle? 7:20 If I sin, what do I do to thee, thou watcher of men? Why hast thou made me thy mark? Why have I become a burden to thee? 7:21 Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth;thou wilt seek me, but I shall not be.'