Job 7 · איוב

Has not a man hard service upon earth? and are not his days like the days of a hireling?

As a servant earnestly desires the shadow, and as a hireling looks for the reward of his work:

so I am allotted months of emptiness, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.

When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro until the dawning of the day.

My flesh is clothed with worms; my skin is a clod of earth: it curdles and decays.

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

O remember that my life is a breath: my eye shall no more see good.

The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more: while Thy eyes are upon me, I am gone.

As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away: so he who goes down to the grave shall come up no more.

He shall return no more to his house, nor shall his place know him any more.

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.

Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that Thou settest a watch over me?

When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;

then Thou dost scare me with dreams, and dost terrify me through visions:

so that my soul chooses strangling, and death rather than these my bones.

I loathe it; I would not live always: let me alone; for my days are emptiness.

What is man, that Thou shouldst magnify him? and that Thou shouldst set thy heart upon him?

and that Thou shouldst remember him every morning, and try him every moment?

How long wilt Thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?

If I have sinned, what do I do to Thee, O Thou preserver of men? why hast Thou set me as thy target, so that I am a burden to myself?

And why dost Thou not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? for now I shall sleep in the dust; and Thou shalt seek me, but I shall not be.