• 1 “Do not mortals have hard service on earth? Are not their days like those of hired laborers?
  • 2 Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired laborer waiting to be paid,
  • 3 so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me.
  • 4 When I lie down I think, ‘How long before I get up?’ The night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.
  • 5 My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering.
  • 6 “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope.
  • 7 Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again.
  • 8 The eye that now sees me will see me no longer; you will look for me, but I will be no more.
  • 9 As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so one who goes down to the grave does not return.
  • 10 He will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more.
  • 11 “Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
  • 12 Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that you put me under guard?
  • 13 When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint,
  • 14 even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions,
  • 15 so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine.
  • 16 I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning.
  • 17 “What is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so much attention,
  • 18 that you examine them every morning and test them every moment?
  • 19 Will you never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant?
  • 20 If I have sinned, what have I done to you, you who see everything we do? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you?
  • 21 Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more.”