Job 7
Job Continues: My Life Has No Hope
1 “Has not man a a hard service on earth,and are not his b days like the days of a hired hand?
2 Like a slave who longs for c the shadow,
and like d a hired hand who looks for his e wages,
3 so I am allotted months of f emptiness,
g and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
4 h When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’
But the night is long,
and I am full of tossing till the dawn.
5 My flesh is clothed with i worms and j dirt;
my skin hardens, then k breaks out afresh.
6 My days are l swifter than m a weaver’s shuttle
and come to their end without hope.
7 “Remember that my life is a n breath;
my eye will never again see good.
8 o The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;
while your eyes are on me, p I shall be gone.
9 As q the cloud fades and vanishes,
so he who r goes down to Sheol does not come up;
10 he s returns no more to his house,
nor does his t place know him anymore.
11 “Therefore I will not u restrain my mouth;
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will v complain in w the bitterness of my soul.
12 Am I the sea, or x a sea monster,
that you set a guard over me?
13 y 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 I would choose strangling
and death rather than my z bones.
16 I aa loathe my life; I would not live forever.
ab Leave me alone, for my days are ac a breath.
17 ad What is man, that you make so much of him,
and that you set your heart on him,
18 ae visit him every morning
and af test him every moment?
19 How long will you not ag look away from me,
nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?
20 If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?
Why have you made me ah your mark?
Why have I become a burden to you?
21 Why do you not pardon my transgression
and take away my iniquity?
For now I shall lie in ai the earth;
you will aj seek me, ak but I shall not be.”
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