• Job: My Suffering Is Comfortless

  • 1 “Is there not a time of hard service for man on earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hired man?
  • 2 Like a servant who earnestly desires the shade, And like a hired man who eagerly looks for his wages,
  • 3 So I have been allotted months of futility, And wearisome nights have been appointed to me.
  • 4 When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I arise, And the night be ended?’ For I have had my fill of tossing till dawn.
  • 5 My flesh is caked with worms and dust, My skin is cracked and breaks out afresh.
  • 6 “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, And are spent without hope.
  • 7 Oh, remember that my life is a breath! My eye will never again see good.
  • 8 The eye of him who sees me will see me no more; While your eyes are upon me, I shall no longer be.
  • 9 As the cloud disappears and vanishes away, So he who goes down to the grave does not come up.
  • 10 He shall never return to his house, Nor shall his place know him anymore.
  • 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.
  • 12 Am I a sea, or a sea serpent, That You set a guard over me?
  • 13 When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, My couch will ease my complaint,’
  • 14 Then You scare me with dreams And terrify me with visions,
  • 15 So that my soul chooses strangling And death rather than my body.
  • 16 I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone, For my days are but a breath.
  • 17 “What is man, that You should exalt him, That You should set Your heart on him,
  • 18 That You should visit him every morning, And test him every moment?
  • 19 How long? Will You not look away from me, And let me alone till I swallow my saliva?
  • 20 Have I sinned? What have I done to You, O watcher of men? Why have You set me as Your target, So that I am a burden to myself?
  • 21 Why then do You not pardon my transgression, And take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust, And You will seek me diligently, But I will no longer be.”