Job 7 ⓘ

7:1 “Isn’t a man forced to labour on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?

7:2 As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,

7:3 so I am made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.

7:4 When I lie down, I say, ‘When will I arise, and the night be gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.

7:5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.

7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

7:7 Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good.

7:8 The eye of him who sees me will see me no more. Your eyes will be on me, but I will not be.

7:9 As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol will come up no more.

7:10 He will return no more to his house, neither will his place know him any more.

7:11 “Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

7:12 Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?

7:13 When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me. My couch will ease my complaint,’

7:14 then you scare me with dreams and terrify me through visions,

7:15 so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.

7:16 I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

7:17 What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,

7:18 that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?

7:19 How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?

7:20 If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?

7:21 Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now will I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I will not be.”