1 »Is this not the struggle of all humanity? A person’s life is long and hard like that of a hired hand.

2 »It is like a worker who longs for the day to end, like a servant waiting to be paid.

3 »I am allotted months of futility, long and weary nights of misery.

4 »I go to bed and I think: »When will it be morning?« But the night drags on, and I toss till dawn.

5 »My skin is clothed with worms and scabs. My flesh breaks open filled with pus.

6 »My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle flying back and forth. They end without hope.

7 »O God, remember that my life is but a breath. I will never again see good.

8 »You see me now but not for long. Your eyes will be on me but I will be dead.

9 »Just as a cloud dissipates and vanishes; those who die will not come back.

10 »They are gone forever from their home. They will not be seen again.

11 »I will not keep from speaking. I must express my anguish. I must complain in my bitterness.

12 »Am I a sea monster that you place a guard on me?

13 »When I think: ‘My bed will comfort me, and I will try to forget my misery with sleep,

14 you shatter me with dreams. You terrify me with visions.’

15 »I would rather die of strangulation than go on and on like this.

16 »I hate my life. I do not want to go on living. Oh, leave me alone for these few remaining days.

17 »What is man that you should magnify him and set your mind on him?

18 »For you examine us every morning and test us every moment.

19 »How long will you keep looking at me and let me alone till I swallow my spittle?

20 »Have I sinned? What have I done to you, O watcher of all humanity? Why have you made me your target? Am I a burden to you?

21 »Why not just pardon my sin and take away my guilt? For soon I will lie down in the dust and die. When you look for me, I will be gone.«